


The Brightest Star

by haroldpotty



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Age Difference, Angst, Drama & Romance, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:40:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 32,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29534871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haroldpotty/pseuds/haroldpotty
Summary: ❝it's okay, star. i'm here, we're safe. you can sleep now.❞--dana is one of madam maxime's favorite students at beauxbatons. so when dana decided to disappear one day in a cold winter of her last year at the academy, the whole beaubaxtons academy of magic decided to perform a search party but only to conclude easily; that it was the doing of the infamous prisoner of azkaban who recently escaped from the ten high security prison.and it caused a huge conflict between the french and british ministry of magic.[set in golden trio's era][sirius black x female oc]
Relationships: Charlie Weasley/Original Female Character(s), Fleur Delacour/Bill Weasley, Sirius Black/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 7





	1. Missing

━━━━━

hi, translation at the end of the chapter! 

do not bother using the google translation. i used an app (which I think the translation was partly accurate) refer to the end of the last chapter. don't worry the conversation is not fully french. 

━━━━━

it was winter on the evening of december, and the dining chamber of the palace of beauxbatons was beautifully decorated with ice sculptures and a huge christmas tree at the centre with wood nymphs that serenaded the students. 

christmas eve was approaching fast and everyone was excited including fleur and her little sister, gabrielle. but as the time run smoothly, fleur can't help but wonder where did her grande soeur (by heart) wander around the palace. 

it's been six hours and she still hasn't appeared yet and the curfew and lights out are exactly at ten 'o clock sharp. fleur's fingers were fiddling on top of her lap as she tried to compose herself and ignore her heartbeat pacing. she did not wander across the lively mood of the corridors and/or halls of the palace and thought dana needed some time alone. 

yet, she can't help but panic. after eating with her co-house members, she hastily wiped her lips and motioned gabrielle to stay and who is about to protest at her. she only gave her a stern look and ran with her flowing blue and silky uniform and shouted for dana's name; waking up the whole palace. 

"grande soeur! dana!"

she was greeted by a blank silence, her stilettos were clicking on the marbled floor as she continues to run and find her elsewhere. the tower, the garden, and even their house dormitory and sorting room. even the libraries, classroom. none. empty. 

she could have sworn she looked everywhere and no one appeared. dana refused to appear. she can't just disappear in a bubble. a palace is a big place but it detects a person to leave or enter the academy with or without permission. and it has protection that hides them from possible non-magique and witches and wizards. 

fleur was getting anxious and anxious every passing second so she decided to run upstairs to visit their headmistress, madame maxime. 

madam maxime, on the other hand, was talking to someone from the french ministry of magic about an important matter regarding the escape of sirius black from azkaban. it was all over uk and usa. it has alerted the macusa, and now the french ministry. 

madam maxime was casually sipping from her tea while she was listening to the minister when the door of her office was shortly opened in a huge bang and a mess-looking fleur barged in with her unpleasant welcome. 

"mademoiselle maxime, dana manque!" fleur cried and began rambling to herself. 

madam maxime seemed to shortly let slip her patience and fixed her composure, gently taking down the cup of tea in front of her. the minister looked up at the quarter veela with an amused smile. 

"fleur, qu’est-ce que je t’ai dit sur les manières?" madam maxime hissed lowly sending her student a glare. 

but fleur sobbed further and gently pushed aside the damped hair covering her eyes, "elle a disparu, elle a disparu! gabrielle et moi avons cherché partout! elle est partie!"

the headmistress seemed to pick up her student's wail of distress before once again asking with caution. 

"tu es sûr de ma chère?" 

"oui," her heart automatically dropped as she discreetly stood up. the half-giantess matched her students' panicking state and gave the minister a side glance. 

they both made a silent communication while the headmistress went ahead of fleur and the minister hoping to catch up with the students still eating and assign the heads of houses and teachers to look for the missing student. 

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈

sunrise came. and no signs of dana everywhere. not even a single strand of her hair. her trunks and uniform was still in the dormitories, beside fleur's comfortable queen-sized bed. but she wasn't physically there. 

madam maxime was incredibly stressed out and silently crying as she called dana's parents, including the great-grandma of dana; whose known for her natural strict and well-mannered nature. dana's mother's bloodline was known for their bloodline of maintained full-veela's. 

and their family associations has been rumoured with a lot of influential pureblood family without any taint of a non-magique and bad reputation. as perfect as their family may sound. their clan also includes many red-flags that many or most people disagreed with. 

including their prejudicial beliefs and political views. and perhaps it includes the domination amongst the non-magique and wizarding community. yet, as they always say, one of the family members always had to oppose and break their beliefs and traditions. 

and dana will make sure of it. at least that is what she promised. 

after her whole family was informed, as usual, their reaction was expected by the headmistress. but dana's grandma's was a different kind of anger. she was deeply mad and questioned the headmistress if their protection was still working. and why did the disappearance happened? 

"i want my child! how could you let this happen?" vienna, dana's mother complained. 

of all students why her grandchild. everyone knew what was the reason. as modest as they would like to say it out loud, it was due to her family's influence. they tried to cooperate with the ministry, seeing the opportunity and asked for a search party. 

whoever finds her will rewarded by the great clairemont (née de luca) knight herself. they did everything in their power to find their child. even if it meant searching across france.

they did. and yet she was never found. but the real question was, how and why did she even disappear in the first place? 

━━━━━

translations:

grande soeur - big sister

mademoiselle maxime, dana manque! - miss maxime, dana is missing!

fleur, qu’est-ce que je t’ai dit sur les manières? - fleur, what did I tell you about manners?

elle a disparu, elle a disparu! gabrielle et moi avons cherché partout ! elle est partie! - she's gone, she's gone! gabrielle and i searched everywhere! she disappeared!

tu es sûr de ma chère ? - are you certain my dear?

oui - yes

━━━━━


	2. Accused

"mrs. clairemont, we are perfectly aware of the azkaban escape of mr. black, but we cannot simply blame it on the british ministry and give no further evidence. we are trying our best to look for black and there is no way he would come here at paris, france. let alone, at beauxbatons."

as soon as cornelius fudge was invited at the request of the french minister, the knight family instantly threw accusations at him. he was outnumbered because it was a private meeting and his aurors can't enter.

hence, it looks like an interrogation because the rest of dana's family was all included. 

"and you simply can not 'ave us believe your statement. this eez a big matter my grandchild eez missing. this eez a scandal to our famille!" mrs. clairemont spat blandly not missing the frustrated look on the british minister's look. 

"i stand by my words, mrs. clairemont. all kinds of wizarding transportations are being watched including the illegal and registered portkeys, apparition, floo networks. the owls too."

the private office of the french minister was soon filled with loud complaints of dana's family but abruptly stopped when the delacours entered the room together with gabrielle and fleur whose eyes were bloodshot from crying. vienna started to cry and run for the young fleur. 

"my dear, fleur! thank you for informing headmistress maxime," she whispered while hugging her. 

she turns to face the delacour sister's parents with a grateful smile, "thank you for coming, apolline and monsieur."

as they sat beside the knight family, cornelius can't help but notice the symbol of the necklace mrs. clairemont has been wearing the whole time. he thought it was familiar but quickly brushed off the sense of familiarity as soon as he heard the voice of vienna's husband; the father to dana. zion. 

"how about the non-magique transportations?" 

"i beg your pardon? the what now?" he insisted with a frown etched on his face. 

"he meant the muggle transportation." a long-haired blond man spoke behind him carrying his long stick with a snake handle staff. 

lucius malfoy appeared behind cornelius with narrowed eyes and watchful expression. zion silently scoffed and did not hide the displeased emotion to the malfoy. 

"what is he doing here? he has no rights in this meeting." zion arguably questioned fudge. 

meanwhile, fudge who still hasn't recovered from the embarrassment of not paying attention to the simple flaw in his plan, shake his head and explained why lucius was necessarily there. 

"he can be useful in finding your daughter, mr. knight."

zion scornfully snorted. he doubted him. he doubted him because he knows the malfoy was no use at all. money. yes, all he had to do is hand over money to people and let them do the work for him. and he knew it well for they both attended hogwarts. surprisingly, before his whole family moved to paris to avoid the war. 

their family hated the malfoys. it's been a while now and their household is trying to get into their pocket to gain influence and connection from their family. they've been doing it before and until now they haven't stopped that kind of tactic to survive.

after the rumoured connection of their family to the dark lord, the downfall of voldemort caused a lot of allegations against their family. but they simply denied it and got away easily. but many did not believe it. and it includes zion. that's why he always reminded the de luca and knight family. 

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈

meanwhile, dana was walking freely down the road to st. mungo's, carrying her clutch while she wears a black tube and a soft white cardigan top with her platinum ash-blonde hair under her beanie. the blue and silver scarf was wrapped around her neck. 

her thigh-high boots dug onto the snowy road with her pastel blue long wide flares made out of flowy material palazzo. as soon as she entered st. mungo's she asked for the number of the ward of the longbottom's and was quickly assisted by a random healer. 

the silent hall of the st. mungo's ricochets the sound of her boot's thick heels. the cold atmosphere almost passed through her thick clothes. as soon as she opened the door of the ward 49, a sleeping old lady over the chair beside the hospital bed of two people; wearing her huge vulture hat and a pair of a green pencil skirt and green button top. 

over the next bed to the right side was a bald man with a blonde wig resting on the bedside table. he was a wearing a forced 'charming' smile. the man gazed over at dana. 

"hello, do you know who i am?" she recognized the sense of arrogance in his voice. she saw her on the daily prophet. her owl always comes back with a uk daily prophet and letter and she knows he is gilderoy lockhart. 

"no," she said in a mimp voice. 

she walks over to the two beds and saw the woman and man she's been meaning to meet at last. 

"mrs. augusta longbottom?" she gently put a hand on the old lady over the chair. she stirred up from her chair and slowly peeked over her eyelids. 

"are you the healer?" she grumbled under her breath. 

"mrs. augusta, my name's dana knight. do you remember alena de luca? i am her niece."

augusta immediately rose from her seat and let out an exaggerated sigh of relief and hugged dana.

"my dear, merlin, how wonderful to see you! it's been a while since alena visited my son and daughter-in-law. i thought she has forgotten them."

she wailed while blowing her nose, "come, come sit beside me."

she took a seat beside her and motioned for her to sit down. she gave her a sad smile. 

"the thing is, aunt alena is dead for almost three years, madam augusta."

the shocked look on the old lady made her want to take back her words. she put a hand on her chest, "w-what happened to alena?" she trembled while putting her frail hands over dana's soft ones. 

"she died from an explosion. she was experimenting on a potion. it was a medicine for mr. and mrs. longbottom."

augusta can't help but tear up at the mention of the experiment, "i'm so sorry she died."

dana shakes her head and gripped the woman's hand tighter, "please don't feel sorry for yourself nor them. aunt wants to help your son and daughter because she's been wanting to talk to them. there's no day she wouldn't miss them. she feels so alone after what happened to them. and given the fact that three of her friends died and one was locked up and the other was nowhere to be found. she made herself busy to cure them. it was the only way to relieve her sadness."

"i'm still grateful for your aunt's efforts. i'm sure frank and alice would too." augusta silently sniffed, "but enough about them. what about you? what have you been up to? i think the last time i checked alena lived in paris. what are you doing here in london?"

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈

after talking to mrs. augusta longbottom, she went to the leaky cauldron to rent a temporary room to stay on for the rest of the days she'll stay in london. she doesn't plan to go back to france anytime soon. 

after she discovered the last will of her aunt from her mother's closet, she was extremely angry at her for keeping a secret that involves her. it turns out that there is an important thing her aunt asks her and alena happens to leave a possession that was named on the contract after her. 

there was a manor in london that her aunt left in the care of alena's house-elves. and until such then, they will serve the owner of the manor unless was freed by the current in possession. 

and who knows what's inside the manor, that her mother badly wanted to keep it as a secret? she wouldn't know would she? and she was glad she found the last will. how could her mother be so selfish to even to her daughter?

dana slouched down on her small bed and craned her neck to the small window of the room. she let out a huge yawn. it's been a tiring day, and she had no time to eat for dinner. 

her eyelids began to weigh on her eyes as she fell asleep into the oblivion. 

the next morning, she woke up and did her usual routine. she went downstairs and made her morning tea. while holding the advanced making potions french version in her hands. 

"ah, miss dana, the usual breakfast order i presume?" 

she smiled at tom and nodded while brought back her eyes down to her book. while flipping on her page, several owls barge in to drop by a daily prophet and that includes her owl, hecate. 

she immediately fiddled through the rough and dark brown newspaper and as usual, the front page was the face of sirius black. 

"shame, shame, poor lad lost it and killed his own best friends." tom muttered under his breath while putting down the plate in front of her. 

"friend?" she said curiously, "peter pettigrew. some say peter tried to warn the potters but came across with sirius black and was killed with the rest of the twelve muggles. he was a big supporter of you-know-who."

she slightly shivered at the indirect mention of the dark lord's alias. everyone was afraid to use his real name ever since what he did in the first war. 

she went upstairs shortly to collect her things and left the newspaper on the table. what she didn't know was tom looked through the inside page and saw her name and her moving picture at beauxbatons. 

⏅⏅⏅

SIRIUS BLACK UNDER THE IMPRESSION OF: KIDNAPPING THE DAUGHTER OF THE LARGEST FAMILY OF PUREBLOODS IN EUROPE

DANA POLARIS DE LUCA KNIGHT

send a letter to the authorities immediately and you will be rewarded with a hundred thousand galleons. 

THE BRITISH AND FRENCH MINISTRY AWAITS YOUR OWL.

⏅⏅⏅

what dana doesn't know wouldn't hurt her right? tom immediately went to the counter and luckily, dawlish, an auror barged in to have a quick breakfast not until tom whispered the girl's room number. 

dawlish apparated back to the ministry to inform the minister. and as soon as dawlish bought back five more aurors with him, dana was now running back upstairs to avoid the aurors who are shouting for her name. 


	3. 12 Grimmauld Place (Part 1)

dana sprinted upstairs, as soon as she heard her name. she cast a loud incantation to open her room mid-way to the hall. she dived inside and locked it with a shaky hand. her wand almost slips out of her grasp as the sweat began forming in it.

she grabbed a handful of her things including her charmed undetectable extension bag and books lying around the small bed and her coat on the bedpost.

the creaking door loudly shook by the force of the knock-on it. her head whipped instantly and panicked around the room. she was pacing back and forth thinking of what to do.

"miss knight, we must ask you to step outside immediately and no harm will be done."

_okay, calm down, dana. we'll find a way._ her eyes diverted around the room and almost beamed in excitement as soon as she spotted the tarnished window glass. she wiped the fogged-up window as the snow began falling inside the room.

the door kept shaking as dawlish tried his best not to lose temper from what's been taking the young woman for almost twenty minutes without any response.

"okay! i'm coming out! wands away please."

dawlish was hesitant but nodded as if she can see him. meanwhile, from the inside was dana who slowly tiptoed to the window and slowly slipped out half of her body with her belongings easily dropping it down.

she risked the fact that it was too high for her liking, but closed her eyes and jumped anyway.

but as soon as her feet landed on the snowy road, she heard tom outside with an accusing look and was about to scream for help when she pointed her wand at the man.

" _confundus,_ "

tom was very distorted and unknowingly walked back inside the pub inn before she sprinted from the road to run. as soon as she turns around, she saw several familiar faces. she halted on her tracks and put a disillusionment charm around her before walking around without no one noticing.

she walked backwards, looking for any signs of aurors. she grinned to herself as if achieving something good. her celebration soon ended when she saw her tracks on the road was still visible.

she suddenly shrieked, "there she is! follow the tracks!"

she gulped heavily, _yeah i didn't think of that._

she runs and focused on the road as she makes a way to escape. _bloody aurors._ she just wanted to see her aunts' last will to her.

if she didn't know her mother any better, she knows she wouldn't let her go because in the first place, why would dana know her aunt left a last will to her? she duplicated the documents. and currently, the original document was in her bag as she traced her way to the manor that was left under her name.

she behind a muggle telephone post and waved her wand hand as the purple triple-decker knight bus arrived. stand shunpike, the conductor took out a piece of parchment to start his speech but only to interrupt when she shoved him.

"welcome to the knight bus, my name is— hey!"

"so sorry, i'm a bit in a hurry. please can we go?" her hands fiddled as she sat to the nearest bed and tapped her feet anxiously. stan sent her a suspicious look before taking out a ticket and lightly knocked his knuckles.

"take it away, where to?" stan narrowed his eyes as if he recognizes her. dana nervously gulped before taking out the document to see any valuable place to go to.

her eyes drifted across the parchment and saw bold letters written.

"er, do you perhaps know how many minutes does it take to go to the **b** **orough of islington**?"

stan smirked and instantly knew she was not from london.

"that'll be seven sickle." she nodded. the knight bus leapt from a fast pace. she tightly held onto the bedpost and felt nauseous. her vision was blurry but she couldn't stop worrying about the suspicious she was receiving.

"what did you say your name again?"

"i didn't!" she almost shouted indifferently. her face was a few inches away from the floor. her head was spinning. the bus stopped minutes later as stan stood up.

"the borough of islington," she stood up in a slur and took out five galleons on her pocket and walked away without bothering to wait for her change.

she held the document closed to her chest as she saw several apartments of neighbourhood muggles.

_the_ _headquarters of the order of the phoenix may be found at n_ _umber 12, grimmauld place, london._

the sound of the muggle radio was piercing her ears as she heard the slow song. she looked between number eleven and thirteen and could've sworn she never saw number twelve. she frowned to herself and sat on the road. her eyes blinked a couple of times when a man transformed back into a human.

he seemed to be oblivious to his surroundings considering his outfit were torn in half and looks like he escaped out of prison. she didn't saw his face only his above the shoulder-length curly black hair.

she runs behind him hoping to know if he knew where was grimmauld place.

"hey, mister muggle— no i mean—sir, may i ask if you know where's grimmauld place?"

his back tensed visibly as the place morphed adjusted. under the fidelius charm, grimmauld place started sprouting in between eleven and thirteen the walls were darker and ghastly and the windows were tarnished with specks of dust and green moulds.

dana looked extremely flabbergasted, "hey!" she squealed as soon as she was pulled over inside the ancient household. the door behind her was closed as she was pinned to the wall.

"who are you?" he growled in a lowly voice. dana almost lost her breath, as her eyes met his stone-cold grey eyes.

her mouth turned into an o-shaped. sirius stood there panting as he tower over the young woman with his tall height.

"y-you're sirius black—" before dana could say anything her eyesight swirled and completely fell out of pitch-black void.

sirius caught the woman in her arms before she could slouch down from the dirty carpeted floor. the dimly-lit narrow hall was disturbed by the small thud.

sirius stared at the young woman's face clearly and saw a sense of familiarity with those long eyelashes and rosy cheeks with that ash-blonde hair. he effortlessly carried her and took her upstairs from the nearest door, his room. her fair complexion complemented her cute chubby cheeks and prominent soft heart-shaped face.

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈

when the small rays of sun barely reaching the window kissed her skin, dana's eyes reluctantly opened her eyes and felt the smooth mattress underneath her fingertips. the silky duvet was encased around her body; her hands gently raised the duvet to see her fully clothed just like the same.

she held a hand to the side of her hand, her eyes caught a small creature standing at the end of the bed. kreacher. the house-elf of the black family.

"the pathetic runaway girl stepping herself into the noble household of black with disgraceful sirius ... if my poor mistress knew kreacher let them, oh—"

"kreacher! stop harassing the poor girl! go back to the old hag's portrait!"

sirius glared at the house-elf with pure hatred on his eyes. dana can't help but grit her teeth from the vile personality of the elf.

"say that again and i won't hesitate to shove your face down your arse." she spat.

kreacher immediately left the room, leaving her with sirius.

dana gulped down hard as she avoids sirius' assessing look.

"tell me why did they accuse me of kidnapping you, miss knight?"

dana laughed sheepishly, "well, er, you see i ran away from home. maybe they saw the opportunity of your escape to blame it on you?"

she said like it was almost a question. sirius raised a brow amusingly, crossing his arms in front of his chest. his clothes were neater, his face was clean and bright.

there was a pause of silence before sirius broke it in a grave tone.

"you need to go, you can't stay here."

dana shook her head stubbornly, "please, can i stay here for a while? i promise i won't tell anyone about your whereabouts."

but he wasn't convinced. not even a little bit. he can't trust anyone these days, especially he won't let some random strangers interrupt his plans to kill someone.

someone he's been wanting to hunt after the potter's death. he saw how the young woman pouted when he zoned out. her cheeks had a tinge of red when his eyes linger in her face.

"no, you can't. you have to find a place to stay with."

as much as sirius would want to sympathise with the woman, he turned around and left the room without a word.


	4. 12 Grimmauld Place (Part 2)

"hey, kid—"

"i'm not a kid," dana frowned at sirius, her voice had so much conviction. indeed, she wasn't a kid anymore. she'll turn twenty-one on february first. 

beauxbatons students had the privilege to choose whether they will spend more years for more extended knowledge. in dana's case, she pursued the field of healing and potions that's why she intended to be a trainee at st. mungo's soon. 

maybe that's why madam maxime wanted her around beauxbatons academy. maybe that was the reason she was her favorite amongst all. she'd like to dedicate herself to study to help people with her acquired talent. she never really minded if she was ahead of everybody or she's the only person who's been at school for almost ten years. frankly she doesn't want to end her journey at beauxbatons. she was given a lifetime opportunity and she wouldn't want it to end easily. 

she had a particular talent in brewing potions, especially the complicated ones and other tonics for the nerve. it seems ambitious as it sounds, but she wanted to continue her aunt's potions for the longbottoms. she wants to be the first to find the cure to the cruciatus curse's insanity. 

she knew of the son of frank and alice, and she couldn't imagine how much pain he's been through. although she hasn't met him personally, she can tell the boy was just like his parents. 

young, brave and a fierce warrior. 

"you are," sirius deadpanned at her. she rolled her eyes while she continues to stare at the green and black tapestry below the first floor of the house. 

"are these your ancestors?" she mumbled out of pure curiosity. 

"i see you've found our family tree," 

"yeah, where are the others?"

"the majority were dead, few of them were far away and had a family. while my dear cousin, bellatrix is in azkaban spending time with her beloved husband."

dana merely flinched at the name. sirius watched her with an amused expression as he inched closer beside her. 

"you see those destroyed faces? mother burnt them because they were a disgrace to our race. the black family are pureblood supremacists."

"why am i even surprised," dana mumbled under her breath. 

"i beg your pardon?" sirius chuckled as she caught his interest, "my mother spoke highly of your family, i mean. our family can relate with each other with their different view of blood status. your family's not a stranger in our manor. they've known each other for almost decades."

"i see, if your family had the same view as mine then does it mean yours views the same as well?"

dana scoffed, "no, of course! i've always disagreed on that part. our blood shouldn't be a hindrance to forming a diversity. no matter what blood runs in our vein, if we produce the same intensity and amount of magic in our own hands, blood doesn't matter. it's just wizards and witches that complicates everything. especially with their wrong, mindset."

sirius grinned at how she delivered her speech to him. she senses her strong will of determination to prove her opinion. 

"people fight every day for domination because what we think is for the _greater good_ of others. but have we asked ourselves if it is worth it?"

she sighed and looked away into the void. her mind wandered mindlessly, while sirius just stared at her as if expecting more dramatic monologue. 

"now that you've said that, i can confirm you are like your aunt."

"you know aunt alena?" dana mused in surprise, "of course, we were in the same house and we're particularly one of those students who have a special talent for annoying people." 

dana smiled widely, she can't help but imagine what would she be if she also went to hogwarts. 

"what is she like?" she was intrigued to know more about her late aunt. 

she was like a real mother to her more than her biological mother. her mother spent most of her time at the ministry alongside her father and other relatives from a business. 

they always have no time for her. and always present on every occasion. 

"she was a stubborn woman," 

"just like you—" "just like me?—"

they chorused in unison, sirius snorted and nodded. 

"yeah, very much alike. but anyway, — don't you dare change the subject young lady. you still need to leave."

"what? dang, it!" she cursed under her breath. she was now pouting, she tugged sirius' hem of his shirt and made a big puppy eye. 

"please just let me stay for the night or the next couple of days! i promise it won't be long! i just need to lay down my plans first so that i could spend less money and time."

"no," sirius' expression hardened. dana gasped as if hurt, "why not? you said you're friends with aunt! how could you let me alone in the streets?"

"now don't you go pull me into your guilty lane, that won't work on me. and i didn't say me and your aunt were friends—"

"but you still knew her! what would she say when she came back from the grave and discovered you were so heartless to a kid like me?" she flails her hands dramatically on her heart. 

sirius rolled his eyes, "now hold the fuck up, you said you weren't a kid." sirius bemused with a snide smirk. 

dana clenched her jaw. _frick you sirius, you got me there._

"ugh, why are you so heartless?" she mumbled indistinctively. 

"come on, pull your dramatic arse together. you'll be fine. not unless we weren't on the same roof, they wouldn't accuse me of kidnapping you."

dana lost it and just threw her small sack bag at his shoulders. 

"ow! what was that for?" he complained rubbing his shoulders. 

"i'm not joking! i just need a place to stay for tonight!"

"alright fine, you require shelter but why did you even run away from home?"

"it's none of your business!" she angrily retorted. 

she begrudgingly walked away from the grimmauld place and went to king's cross station straightaway. she was tired of rounding about the streets of london. 

and she doesn't even know why was she on king's cross. she was just following instructions on the damn documents. as she took a route to find the nine and three-quarters barrier, the station was packed with muggles. 

and she was almost on the verge of crying because she thinks she was lost. and for one, she was not very good at directions and she might just pass out anytime. she did not want to gain any attention. 

she accidentally but subtly tripped on her feet. as she dropped her bag, books sprouted out. she immediately took it in her hands when a hand had helped her. an old woman handed her the book but was reluctant when she saw the cover of the book. 

it was her advanced potion making book. she then tried to step away when she took out her wand to perform a memory charm

"witch!" the woman shrieked, dana frantically scurried before wandlessly pointed a hand at her. 

some people were weirdly staring at the both of them. 

"don't be stubborn, old muggle, come here and that'll be quick," she mumbled under her breath. 

"obliviate," she silently conjured before walking away from the distraught looking woman. 

she clings her bag on her shoulders before walking through the hideout and disapparated in a loud crack. she wanted to take a short cut to go to diagon alley. her aunt had a bank at gringotts and had left a possession and money. 

she decided to transfer all of her money to her bank since it was left under her credit. she had the small key in her bag and luckily she didn't lose it. considering she was too clumsy. 

she didn't realize she was already in knockturn alley. the place was eerily dark and the unpleasant rubbish was all over the place. 

few passersby had the same expression. dark and menacing. some men were staring at her maliciously. she wasn't even using her veela charms yet these men easily fell under her grasp. 

she did not want any of them at the moment, she had many things in her mind. 

"going somewhere darling?" she hissed when a group of old men cornered her on the dark walls of the knockturn alley. 

"yes, now if you'll excuse me, i have some business to attend to." 

she was about to walk away when a strong hand gripped her forearm making her squeal at the newfound force. 

"take your filthy hands off me!"

she growled kicking his gut straightaway before sprinting away but only to be held down by two pairs of hands. 

"let go!" she screamed and kicked her way out, "accio!"

her hands flew in her hand, "relashio!"

"stupefy!" the skinny man dodged her spell without a sweat as he showed her his dirty teeth. 

a sinister smile splayed across his lips as they cornered her once more, while she backed away from them. they strongly put a fierce look as she was about to threaten them. 

a huge and fluffy dog barked behind her. it's furred violently shook, his tail was wagging aggressively. the huge black dog barked at the men. 

he bared his fangs and run for them who had a look of terror. dana tried so hard not to laugh. they were big-boned men who can pick on a girl, but afraid of a dog. 

she slightly let out a shaky breath she's been holding on since a while ago. she recognized the dog, but ignored him as soon as the men left her. she made her way up to diagon alley and ignored the sounds of a plea of the dog. 

she was walking across the bustling crowd of diagon alley together with sirius behind him, who had a guilty look on his face. as soon as she found the wizard bank, sirius waited outside as she entered inside.


	5. Vault 112

* * *

"i wish to enter madam alena selena de luca's vault." 

the goblin stared at dana with scrutinizing look, "and you must be her niece," he bemused, "follow me, miss knight."

had dana wandered why the goblins knew her, she never asked. she didn't want to associate with people who would tip her location; she did not need it for she has better things to do. 

although she was still salty from sirius' neglecting, she wasn't going to complain again because she realized he had all the rights to kick her arse out of grimmauld place. 

they sat on a cranky tattered cart as they swayed under the tunnel of underground vaults. the earthen scent of the tunnel filled in her nostrils as they stopped by a particular hall. 

"madam de luca's vault is divided into five sorted solely for galleons and other properties left under your name. if you wish to open another vault, you can put them all together with your name on it. and i will give you a new key."

the goblin explained, jumping out of the cart with his lamp in his right hand. she handed him the key and opened the first vault; 

"vault 201," the goblin opened the vault and revealed a lot of money including bronze knuts, silvers sickles and galleons. the vault was almost full, and it looks like it is about to burst out.

"how many estimated money is in there?"

"the goblins don't exactly know. madam alena puts five hundred thousand galleons inside her vault every month. the insane amount of money is impossible to count."

dana sure too was a shock as the goblin, "haven't you all suspected the amounts of money of money weren't legitimate or a duplicate from a gemino curse?"

the goblin shook his head who's seemingly sure of what he's saying, "no, the numeral numbers around the coins are not the same and different. gringotts is a safe place for money and we took a great value of money. we would know from one look if it's a fake galleon."

"i see, i would like to move the money from a new vault of mine. please make sure to isolate it from the rest."

"duly noted,"

they went back to the cart and took another roller coaster route. as they reached another tunnel, she saw another vault but bigger than the first one.

"vault 112, this is where madam de luca keeps all of her accessories and antique pieces of furniture, silver plates, golden goblet and other valuable possessions."

the goblin traced the line on the door of the vault as it opened revealing a lot of accessories. from the outside, she took a good look and found an interesting necklace. 

she slowly walks inside while her eyes were transfixed from the necklace. she slowly took it from her hands and examined the sign of it. 

she can't help but trace the silver necklace across her thumb and looked at it in fascination as if she was being moved by it. like she was being seduced by the dark energy. 

she has seen the necklace around her grandmother, that's why it was very familiar. 

"this is the deathly hallows, isn't it?" she whispered more to herself to confirm her suspicions but the goblin seemed to hear her. 

"it is, it is said to be offensive to whoever who wears it. especially in bulgaria. it was a sign of grindelwald."

she tucked in the necklace in her pocket before walking out with an impassive expression. 

"let's go, i'll give back my aunt's old key in your possession goblin. i'd like to trade millions of gold in exchange for hiding all my money and forget this conversation never happened. this is between us only goblin. not even a word from my family."

she gave him a stern look, which he returned a smirk, "as you wish,"

"how would i know you'll fulfil my conditions?" she inquired with a watchful gaze. 

"the unbreakable vow,"  
  


◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈  
  


"oh come on, dana you can't be seriously angry at me? i already said sorry."

dana tried her best to push past sirius as she locked up herself in one of those rooms at grimmauld place. needless to say, she was still not in the mood to deal with sirius's stubborn arse. 

it was still not right to kick her out and then come after her to save her. what is he even doing at knockturn alley a while ago if he was being hunted down by the ministry? 

but of course, sirius on the other hand wouldn't tell her because his pride was too high to even reach. indeed, he was guilty of doing such cruelty, that's why he followed her. 

and it turns out he saw her at knockturn alley. he didn't plan to go anywhere in public, but he need to stop acting like a real asshole and offer the girl another chance. but she was too thick to come by. 

maybe he was wrong, but he's also just being careful. 

"no, don't you ever come near me. i would not let that happen. you're still a jerk." she huffed angrily, pulling the thin piece of metal behind her. the fencing sword. 

she angrily pointed the sharp end of the sword at his neck and glared at him. 

"put that thing down or i'll tackle you," sirius warned, but the girl sticks out her tongue. 

" _ooh i'm so scared, daddy comes to save me._ " she mocked him. 

sirius flustered furiously, "i'm serious!"

"that you are, your name's all over the posters. no need to declare it in my face," she said smugly. 

"stop with the puns!" he groaned. 

"okay sirius, let's be _sirius_." 

"dana!"

"yes, _sirius?_ "

sirius ran after her while she runs away from him and circled the small square table as he tried to chase her. 

"watch it! you're pissing me off."

"oh come on, don't be so _sirius,_ loosen up!"

"okay, that's it—"

"what're you gonna do, huh? cry to momma— _ah! let me go!_ "

sirius pulled the sword from the young lady's hand and intentionally picked her up like a sack of potatoes, hanging upside down while her eyes were gazing down the floor. 

"you—stupid—mass—murderer—let—me—go!" she was punching his back but to sirius, it feels like a massage he didn't have since he was locked up in his cell at azkaban. 

he let out a satisfied groan, "keep it going, my body loves a treatment."

he grinned as the woman fell silent, "where are you taking me?"

she mumbled quietly. when they both sat in the kitchen, sirius began meddling with the utensils as he attempted to cook food but dana immediately swatted away his hands from the burning pan without oil. 

"sit down and let me cook, you'll burn this entire household before you know it."

while they ate in comfortable silence, sirius felt the need to vent out something to her, hoping she'd listen to his drama's and plans. he thought maybe she's not that bad after all. 

"it is my fault why lily and james had died. i shouldn't have underestimated peter."

"well technically, it is your fault." dana bluntly responded which made sirius jump. 

"what?!" he yelled while dana laughed, "what? do you want me to convince you that it wasn't you that you don't have to blame yourself?" she argued incredulously. she took down her spoon and fork and then stared back at sirius deeply. 

"you know sirius, if you want to make up with the time you never had with your godson, you have to start accepting death and change because they are inevitable. we'll all gradually grow and you can't forever leave yourself from the tragic past. well— maybe you can because it's your choice. but the thing is! — if you regret lily and james' death, you'll forgive yourself and move on completely and start a new life."

sirius couldn't admit to himself that the girl in front of her was wiser than himself who's already old enough. 

"preach," he responded cheekily while taking a sip from his soup. dana rolled her eyes and grinned afterwards. 

"well a little visit wouldn't hurt, would it?"

"i was planning to visit godric's hollow later. and i wouldn't want to cause any commotion at his striking afternoon."

he sighed, maybe she was right. for old times sake. maybe he just needs to visit his friends.


	6. To Hogwarts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> double update! I apologize for not updating sooner.

sirius stared at his two old friend's cold grave at godric's hollow; his eyes were downcast as a trickle of tears descended his eyes, his shabby black and the ghastly looking jumper was wrapped around him like a cocoon as the snow fell along the pitch-black night. 

his eyes wander across the town, his eyes drifted down the narrow ends of godric's hollow and saw a house in ruins. his trembling hands reach mid-way while he finds his old self kneeling helplessly in front of a house. 

his agonizing scream intensifies while his head was lowered. his fist was tightly curled into a ball. 

his feet dragged him inside the house while his eyes dilated. his heartbeat was erratically beating loudly, his ears hurt from the piercing straight sound like he was losing his breath. he stumbled inside the house and saw a foot dangling on the staircase. 

"j-james?" for the first time in his life, he never called him by his real name but the name he always preferred to. _prongs._

he crawled through the stairs as he grabbed his head; his round glasses were broken. james' eyes we're cast above with his pale face. 

his pulse was no longer present, he stopped breathing. the debris was all over the carpeted floor as his ears perked from the cries of despairs of a little child. 

he almost fell on his feet while he numbly stared at lily's eyes. her forest green eyes with no life. he unconsciously began sobbing, while he clutched his hands into his chest tightly. 

baby harry looked broken more than he ever is. his face was covered with tears. as of that moment, sirius slowly reached for harry's crib and picked him up. 

what's harder, he exactly looks like his friend and just like lily's emerald eyes; they reminded him of the nightmare that would forever haunt him down. 

there was no greater pain than seeing the person who took you in and treated you like your own blood lying on the floor. with bodies that were as cold as ice and eyes no longer warm like the afternoon radiant sun. 

he cannot accept what he sees. 

"sirius, i'm sorry but 'yer gon' 'ave to give me 'arry. dumbledore's order."

the half-giant hagrid was behind him, they both shared the sullen look on their faces. the silliness and happy expressions were gone. and maybe he should. he'll come back for harry, but first, he needs to visit an old friend who needs to have an explanation. 

rage. rage and deep shade of fury rattled his body as he stormed downstairs with hagrid following behind him. 

"can i have your motorcycle, sirius? to retrieve harry back to dumbledore."

"yes, sure, sure. do whatever you want with it."

his mind was somewhere else. who could know lily and james' location other than him, peter and dumbledore? he's not thick enough. _and all this time, he doubted remus more than anyone else?_

sirius shook his head as if snapping himself out of his long trance. he just wants to walk away from the place and wash away all the bad memories. for once, maybe he should listen to dana. 

he faced the tomb of his friends once more before whispering under his breath. 

"wish you were here with us, prongs. take good care of him for me, lily."

he rushed out of the cemetery before transforming into his animal's form; his thick black fur shook from the new sensation of the snow falling rapidly as he pounces and ran with a fast speed on the snowy road. 

what sirius didn't know was the look of longing from his friends above, "i will, for you padfoot. take care of our harry." finally, lily found the courage to respond even though he couldn't hear her.   
  
  
  


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"what have you done to the poor train driver?" dana scolded while they ride the empty train of hogwarts express. the night after sirius visited his old friends, they went straightaway to platform nine and three-quarters the next morning. 

sirius, being in his usual rebellious self, confunded the driver tricking him into going back to hogwarts that's been stationed in london a while ago. they were both alone from the train ride and took approximately many hours before they reached their destination. 

sirius wants to visit hogwarts first but dana beat him on it and said they should find a place to stay with first and plan out his enter. 

"we need to go there now! we have not much time!" sirius insisted, but dana knows better and pushed sirius down the old chair from the shrieking shack. 

"you will either stay here or i'll make you. don't you remember what happened the first time you entered hogwarts again? you said it yourself! you slashed the fat lady's portrait and one of the students accidentally reported you to the professors! you're bloody lucky you wiped out his memory or else you'll be caught by then." dana growled in frustration. 

sirius certainly didn't think of it at first, it was a bold move considering he didn't know the password. but he ordered crookshanks to do some alternative ways to get inside.. while he was away planning out, crookshanks is their inside eye as he tries to catch peter between his sharp teeth. 

"i know you're frustrated okay? but this is the only way, we can't risk your head going around the village like a free man. if you don't want to get chuck back in azkaban you have to pull yourself together. let me bring some food first while you wait for crookshanks."

sirius thoughtfully nodded before he let her out of the shrieking shack. meanwhile, dana as promised went back to hogsmeade village to buy something that would help their hunger fed up with the help of the galleons in her pocket. 

she didn't want anyone to recognize her that's why she made sure to cover her face and quietly went to every store and bought sweets. the hogwarts students were around the village today so it's hard for her to stay hidden. 

as soon as she found an old post away from the other stores, she sped up her pace and went for it without thinking too much. 

_hogshead_

as soon as the bell rang from the door, a man was wiping a few goblets in his hands with a dirty cloth while his back was turned. 

"we're closed, come back tomorrow," the man grumbled in a low voice. but she insisted and stood firm on her ground. 

"uh, can i please stay here for a while? i don't want anyone to recognize me. i just need a few more minutes before i go back."

"didn't you hear me? i said—" the barman immediately, startled, dropped his dirty clothes on his right hand and faced her with a dreadful expression. 

people are looking at her like that for some time now, and by this time she's used to it. everyone knows she is kidnapped but she was standing in an old pub, casually conversing with a barman who exactly looks like albus dumbledore. 

of course, she knows dumbledore. not by his title nor his name. but by the person who exactly knew him. her aunt. she had an attached picture of their secret society called the order of the phoenix. no wonder her aunt badly wants her to come to london. she wants her to recall her days back in her studies with these people. 

and honestly, she feels uncomfortable knowing she and her aunt weren't the same people and that she feels so out of place for being there. 

sirius reminded her of her aunt, while adores her aunt very much likely and was disappointed to know she wasn't alena. but she wasn't in london for these people. she is here to collect her properties. but ended up being associated with a falsely accused mass murderer and about to plan out a real murder. 

she knows she will get away. her family had a way of keeping all the possible things that would destroy their image. including their only daughter and grandchild being a criminal. 

dana sat there, and spent most of her time sitting quietly and trying to make the most out of the moment by thinking of another plan. after the students were about to leave, she blended in with hem trying to chuck them inside the castle. 

she was hidden inside her thick jumper while she fastened up her pace to join a bushy-haired girl. 

she accidentally bumped into her shoulders, but didn't try to look back, "i'm so sorry," she hastily apologised while she fell behind other students following the entrance through the front door of the castle. 

as soon as she stepped inside the glorious halls of hogwarts, her eyes scanned through the crowd and saw a raven-haired and ginger-haired boy running through the crowd. 

"scabbers! hermione, take that bloody beast of yours away from my rat!"

the brown bushy-haired woman she bumped into pushed past the crowd and saw her picking up a furry haired cat. 

"well, maybe you should learn to take care of your rat instead of blaming it on my cat, ronald! it's alright, crookshanks, it's not your fault. just ignore that mean little boy."

gotcha! 

what a coincidence that might be. the cat fell out of the young girl's arms and chased after the rat away from the main entrance with a small piece of parchment tucked in his mouth. 

dana followed subtly.   
  
  
  
  


◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈  
  
  
  
  


that night, the whole gryffindor common room was eerily silent as the rest of the third years went upstairs to the dormitory to rest. while he golden trio was left out from the couch of the fireplace discussing the killer on the loose. 

hermione, being suspicious the whole time, tried to bring up suspicious who bumped into her a while ago. but harry and ron discarded her 'over reacting' thoughts and proceeded to talk about sweets. 

night came, and everyone was fast asleep, meanwhile, on the boy's dormitory, scabbers just came back while squeaking heavily. just as he rested beside his owner, sirius was at the portrait hole with a piece of parchment written with the passwords. sir cadogan was a very tricky man and always changes passwords once in a while. 

and no wonder one of their students wrote it down to memorize it. as soon as sirius muttered the password, sir cadogan bows dramatically and swung the portrait open to let the guest in. 

on the other hand, dana was in front of a gargoyle statue that unknowingly opened by its will, revealing the spiral staircase up the headmaster's office. 

she has to talk of albus dumbledore and convince sirius is innocent, otherwise, if the dementors have him once and for all, an Innocent life will die. 

just as she burst inside the door of the office, albus dumbledore was pacing back and forth with his hands on his beard, caressing it. 

"i was beginning to worry you have lost your way to my office, miss knight."  
  
  
  
  


◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈  
  
  
  
  


"that is preposterous mr. weasley. how can sirius black enter the gryffindor's portrait hole?"

"i don't know how he got in! i was a bit busy dodging his knife! i told you, sirius black tried to kill me!"

the ear-piercing scream of the young ronald weasley woke up the whole people of gryffindor; while his brother percy weasley frantically woke up their head of the house to investigate the matter at hand. 

"percy, will you please find sir cadogan," mcgonagall said frustratingly, torn between whether to believe what her student said or be annoyed by the interruption of her sleep. 

they were all joined by the gryffindor down the common room wearing their pyjamas and nightclothes. neville, on the other hand, was deeply anxious because he thinks he knows why sirius black entered their tower confidently. his parchment was missing a while ago and he doesn't know where he put it. 

all he knows was he put it somewhere near him. 

"he's right there professor," percy pointed at sir cadogan who was accompanied by a young lady whom he's trying to persuade with flowers. 

"sir cadogan! excuse me? is it possible that you let in a mysterious man into the gryffindor tower tonight?"

"certainly, good lady! he had the password, he had all the passwords in weeks. written down in a piece of paper."

neville went rigid, while professor mcgonagall closed her eyes beginning to get mad. of course, she certainly knows who carelessly left the password everywhere. this isn't surprising at all. 

but she can't help but shake in fury. if anything had happened to one of the gryffindor students, it would certainly be her fault seeing she was their head of the house and she is held accountable for their safety. 

"which abysmally foolish person would write down the passwords then proceed to lose them?" she gritted her teeth together glaring down hard at the poor young neville who was almost on the verge of tears. 

"is it always going to be you, mister longbottom!" everyone, including neville slightly jolted back at the intense force on mcgonagall's voice. 

neville hadn't said anything, he was ashamed of himself. if only he could do something about his forgetfulness then his fellow wouldn't be in trouble because of him. 

neville was given whole year detention, the passwords won't be given to him, and until then, he can't go to hogsmeade because he was banned from any visits. 

if it hadn't gotten worse, his grandmother sent him a howler the next day, saying he was an absolute disgrace to the longbottom. it wasn't his fault but partly is his. but he certainly did not complain because he thinks he deserves it. 

meanwhile, sirius was angry because he had yet missed another opportunity to catch pettigrew. but dana came back with an award-winning smile and a plan in her mind. which, sirius would love to agree on. 


	7. Grindelwald

"sirius orion black!" sirius screeched on the tattered and almost broken chair when he heard the loud and commanding voice of dana. 

he slightly shivered when he saw her furious face, he swore he almost saw the steam coming out from her nose and ears. 

"what is it?"

"you put neville into trouble! i told you not to do anything first! now i can't sneak onto the castle to talk to dumbledore." 

she said frustratingly, dumping herself onto the floor next to him. 

sirius frowned at this. the last thing he needs is dumbledore interfering with his plans. what was he needed this time? 

"why do you need to?"

dana whirled around and glared at him sharply. he silently squealed, "does it matter? i told him you're innocent! that's why we need his help!"

sirius fell guilty at that moment. _of course, she'll do that._ but he didn't think of it at the moment. he was too keen on chasing the rat. who ratted their friendship to some dark lord he worshipped so much. 

but what was his reason? what was his reason that he gave them up easily without a doubt? _what have you done, wormtail?_

"dana, listen, you need to find an inn just for tonight." sirius was anxious, he will meet remus today and he is worried that she might pass out or get scared when remus transforms tonight. 

he couldn't tell remus' condition because he's not in the right place to tell her. at this point, dana was confused. 

"what are you?-" before dana could say anything, the door bursts open and revealed a man with patches on his robes and the dilapidated suitcase in his hands. 

"moony!" sirius yelped in surprise before jumping onto the man's arms, looking more grateful than ever. dana felt offended. _he never felt grateful for her help though._

"you might want to introduce me to your friend, padfoot." 

sirius broke away quickly before clearing his throat and pulling dana beside him, "well-er, moony, you know who it is and _dana this is remus._ he's one of my friends together with er- _prongs._ "

sirius looked reluctant, while dana was frowning, but her expression morphed into realization. 

"oh," was all she said followed by, "OH!"

"no need to yell!" sirius hissed, while dana smiled sheepishly. 

"my apologies, _monsieur. it's nice to finally meet you._ " dana eagerly shook her hands to the dada professor who gave sirius a knowing look. 

"you must be the unlucky girl sirius kidnapped." sirius bantered a sharp look on his friend. 

"don't you dare-" he gritted his teeth as dana laughed, "that would be me, _unfortunately._ "

"come on, are we gonna do this here?" sirius rolled his eyes, as they continue to make a fool of him. 

"same old, padfoot. girls never fail to chase after her. but it seems that he's doing the exact opposite today."

dana snorted biting her lower lip, satisfied at the embarrassing look on sirius. 

while dana excused herself to go buy them a drink and food, she came back as soon as she heard them talking. 

"are you sure about her, padfoot?"

"I'm sure moony, she seemed harmless. and independent." dana winced. there's no other _her_ in their company other than her. 

"but her family isn't! don't you know where they came from?"

"well, i do, from what she mentioned. what d'you reckon?"

"her family is a descendant of grindelwald!" 

dana went rigid. no, she's not an idiot. she knows what he's saying is true. but she kept denying it. from the obsession of her family and the way, they spoke highly of him. there is no doubt. 

she just doesn't know how to put it into words. but his reign is long gone. and surely, they won't do anything about it. grindelwald's reputation in france is very terrifying. he killed a lot of people in france, and particularly their family is one of the number one supporters of his advocacy. 

_for the greater good._

the words in her tongue rolled out like a bitter taste in her mouth. 

"what are you saying, moony?"

"i'm saying grindelwald is more powerful than voldemort! don't you see? voldemort only kills for fun, but grindelwald has deep advocacy! he has a purpose why he kills those muggles in europe! he calls his pureblood followers and sees him as their hero. and one of his followers is her family."

"and no one suspects it?"

"no, only a few people know their real status. it came out to be a rumour but eventually, everyone brushed it off. i don't know what they did to cover it up, but dumbledore confirmed it to me. he said there's no doubt when she saw her at his office."

dana decided that she heard enough. she made it clear that she's coming back inside with a loud thud. 

"i'm here!" she was shaking heavily but composed herself once she got upstairs. 

"fancy a butterbeer?" she smiled weakly while handing them their drink. 

they both stared at the young woman oddly but she smiled nonetheless to make it less suspicious. 

"about what i said a while ago, dana. you should go to hogshead just for tonight to find a place to sleep to."

"why?" she insisted, but sirius was still hesitant and stared back at remus. 

"i- i am dangerous at night and you shouldn't see the horror of me. trust me, you wouldn't want to see it."

_moony. midnight._

"oh, so you're a werewolf?" she asks casually sipping on her butterbeer. 

"wha-" 

"i told you, moony she's smart." sirius said like a proud father. 

dana silently scoffed, "no need to overestimate me,"

"so you need an animal company is that it?" dana smiled and tried to put it into lighter words careful not to offend sirius's friend despite what she heard from them. 

remus is skilled in his teenage years and knowledgeable. maybe that is the reason why dumbledore appointed him despite his conditions. he was trying to read dana's mind but the woman's mind was filled with an invisible large wall to protect her thoughts. like it has been permanently there to avoid seeing her naked ideas and vulgar expression. 

"you know, my uncle was a werewolf as well. my father is an animagus too, he helps him whenever it's the full moon. i can help too if you'd like."

"you're an animagus too?" they both sync. 

"yes, the only reason why i am not using it to enter at hogwarts is that i was hesitant. the last time i transformed, i almost didn't shift back to my human form. i find it very difficult. but no worries, i'm a registered animagus in french ministry."

"what is the form of your animagus if i may ask?" remus said in relief. 

"occamy,"  
  
  
  
  



	8. Wormtail

remus was a little less anxious this full moon since he didn't have to transform because severus, unfortunately, gave in and made a potion for his condition. from the nasty sound of the name, dana grimaced and they seemed to notice her distaste against the potions master.

"he sounds like a bully," she argued while her legs were crossed against each other. sirius let out a half-hearted laugh at her side comment. 

"more like a greasy bitch—"

"padfoot!" remus warned with a stern look. as amusing as it sounds, remus wouldn't want to forget that he helped him make his condition a little bearable for his welfare and the others as well. 

his mind is irrational whenever he's in his full form and he's afraid of hurting anyone he comes across. 

"what? it's true, he's a bitch and from what i've heard from the students at hogwarts he's a terrible teacher. likes to humiliate students." sirius grumbled under his breath. 

remus nodded solemnly, "yes, i've heard. especially poor neville. his boggart was him."

dana instantly frowned. 

"tell me he did not—" she said calmly, but internally trying to make up for a plan to murder snape. 

"unfortunately, yes."

"he can't just do that to his students, that's so unethical and unprofessional of him!"

she exclaimed almost surprising both gentlemen at her reaction, "neville's gone through so much and being unsafe in an environment that should help him develop his magic will only make it worst for him."

"touché," sirius and remus synchronized, while dana was still frowning. when remus came back to hogwarts from the shrieking shack, he found himself encountering harry and snape in the middle of the hallway with a parchment he perfectly-recognized. 

the marauder's map. 

"this looks like a parchment designed to insult anyone who tries to reveal it." he chuckled remembering their little plan back when they were all teenagers. 

they put a jinx on the parchment, that whenever who tries to open it up, they will receive an insult from the four creators of the marauders.

"harry, will you come with me please? i shall sort things out with you."

as soon as they entered his office, he started reprimanding young harry, he was more stern this time; he didn't know if it was his werewolf sending him on the edge or it's his feelings trying to remind harry what is right and what is wrong. 

or is it just himself afraid that harry may find out about his godfather sooner, "go to bed, and no detours. if you do—" he pointed the map in his hand, "i'll know,"

harry nodded in understanding, but before he could leave, he said something that would confirm all dana and sirius's demands. 

"professor, just so you know, i don't think the map always works."

"and why is that?"

"it showed someone i've known to be dead,"

intrigued but nervous, remus asked, "and who might that be?"

"peter pettigrew,"

after harry left, remus sprinted back to the shrieking shack, waking up dana and sirius in a daze, 

"i told you we were both right!" sirius jabbed his stomach, as remus winced at his action. 

"i know, but i took the map, it might help you."

"thanks, moony. we'll see wormtail soon."  
  


◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈  
  


today was buckbeak's official execution, and the trio was on their way to hagrid's hut while ron and hermione were too busy arguing with each other. 

" _aww,_ just look at 'im, loves the smell of the trees when the wind blows through them."

harry and hagrid was busy watching buckbeak by the small broken window of hagrid's hut. hagrid looked hurt and his voice was distant. 

"why don't we just set him free?" harry suggested, "they'd know it was me, and then dumbledore ... would get into trouble. he's coming down, dumbledore. says he wants to be with me when they ..." hagrid sighed, looking deeply hurt. 

"when it happens. great man dumbledore!"

dana was watching by the huge stones, above hagrid's hat, near the whomping willow. he saw three people coming down. 

the british minister, hogwarts headmaster, and the executioner of buckbeak. hagrid ushered the three as soon as he saw them. meanwhile, dana motioned for sirius to come by and practised what they have planned. 

as soon as the trio went by the back door, and hid behind the huge pile of pumpkins. before dana could turn around, she could have sworn she saw two shadows from her peripheral vision passed by. 

"go, sirius, they're coming up!" she pushed sirius while she turned around and ran inside the passage of whomping willow avoiding all the slapping vines. 

sirius went to hide behind one of the trees as he watches the three kids ran up near the wooden bridge. 

"scabbers! he bit me!"

sirius heard hermione screamed out the young weasley's name as they edged towards the whomping willow. it was his turn to snuck in behind them silently as he watches on ran to catch his rat. 

sirius growled lowly, "ron! run!"

ron gazed up and saw his black saggy dog form. he was utterly terrified, "harry, hermione run! it's the grim!"

both harry and hermione turned around quickly, but sirius's were over the rat in ron's hands. 

he barked loudly as he jumped mid-air and sucked his teeth on ron's foot careful not to bit into his flesh. 

ron was wailing in despair as sirius pulled him into the passage of the whomping willow; whilst harry was catching ron's hands. 

"ron! ron! ron!"

as both sirius and ron neared upstairs, ron was struggling, "let go of me!" he cried profusely. 

"he's hurting, sirius, let go of his foot!" dana scolded sirius as he pulled the boy aside beside her. 

"thank goodness— did he trapped you here as well? please help me, please he's going to kill me!" 

ron held onto dana's hands for dear life as sirius hid behind the broken door to transform back into his human form. 

dana giggled making ron surprise, "he's not going to kill you relax!"

ron's facial expression changed into a relief, "then why did he bought me here?"

dana was about to answer when their heads turned to the door and saw sirius paws turned feet. 

"he— he's not a—! is he—"

"ron!" 

"harry! it's a trap. he's the dog, he's an animagus!" ron finally found the right words to describe him. 

he frantically pointed behind the door, while he held onto his rat. hermione's gaze lingers on dana, while harry glared at sirius who's in front of them. 

the trails of his paws was on the floor. 

sirius dramatically panted as he revealed himself. ron weakly stood up beside harry and pulled him beside him. 

"if you want to kill harry, you have to kill us too!" he bravely said, while he was lowering his gaze. 

"you hear me? you have to kill us too!" he weakly muttered. 

"no! only one will die tonight." sirius sneered looking at the rat dead in the eye. 

"then it'll be you!" harry yelled while dana tried to ripped them apart together with crookshanks who just got inside with remus. 

"expelliarmus!" 

he used his wand to motion harry to step aside. 

dana took harry's hand and pulled him back, trying to assess the situation. 

"calm down, harry, they'll explain what happened."

she soothed, harry whipped around to see the young woman. he was familiar. and hermione did find her too as well. and something clicked when she saw the daily prophet below. 

it was her. the girl sirius had "kidnapped".

"well, well sirius, looking ragged aren't we? finally, the flesh reflects the madness within."

dana groaned at their dramatic execution, "come off it, remus. let's get straight to the point."

remus nodded and took sirius's hands and hugged each other, "i found him," 

"i know,"

"it's him!"

"i understand,"

"let's kill him!" sirius impatiently muttered. 

hermione realized that the three of them were teaming up to kill her best friend. she took her wand out and pointed it at dana who softly raised a brow amusingly. 

"no! i trusted you!" she shouted almost teary-eyed at remus, "and all this time ... you've been his friend! he's a werewolf that's why he's been missing classes."

"and you! i thought the daily prophet says you were kidnapped turns out you are as lunatic as him! you do realize you'll go back together to azkaban by killing harry!"

dana smiled, "it's true, i am helping him. but we do not intend to kill your friend."

"liar!" hermione hissed, while dana shook her head, "i know what i'm seeing—"

"then perhaps, darling, you should also learn how to listen to others instead of immediately believing what you hear and what you see." 

hermione was stubborn, but she was sure they were helping each other to kill someone. and unless ... hermione looked down at crookshanks who was hissing at somebody. 

ron. no! his rat! 

"how long have you known, hermione?" remus said snapping everyone back to reality. 

"since professor snape set the essay."

"well, well, hermione you are the brightest witch of your age—" remus looked impressed by this. 

but sirius wasn't, "enough talk, remus! let's kill him!"

"wait—!" 

"i did my waiting! twelve years of it ... in azkaban!"

remus was reluctant as he looked at harry with a knowing look back to sirius and handed him harry's wand whom he disarmed a while ago. 

"very well, kill him— but wait one minute, harry has the right to know why."

harry stepped up, "i know why! you betrayed my parents! you're the reason they're dead!"

remus and dana were quick to defend sirius. 

"no, it wasn't him, harry." 

"somebody did betray your parents, somebody who, until quite recently, i believed to be dead." remus added. 

"who was it then!" harry challenges with a look. 

"peter pettigrew! and he's in this room, right now! come out, come out, peter!" sirius taunted waving the wand in his hands. 

"come out, come out and play!"

"expelliarmus!"

a low conjure of charm echoed as another man appeared by the door. his black robes and greasy black above the shoulder hair occupies dana's view. 

"vengeance is sweet," he snickered looking pleased with himself and pointed his wand at remus, "i told dumbledore you were helping an old friend into the castle. and here's the proof."

_dana frowned. give me some credit._

"brilliant snape," sirius sarcastically muttered, "you've put your keen mind to the task and come to the wrong conclusion."

"now if you'll excuse us, remus and i have some business to attend to—"

_snape. he's the one who's been bullying neville._

"give me a reason — i beg you!"

"severus don't be a fool." remus calmly said, "he can't help it, it's been a habit."

"sirius be quiet!"

"BE QUIET YOURSELF, REMUS!" 

"look at you two, quarrelling like an old married couple." snape teased, and that's when sirius lost his shit. 

"WHY DON'T YOU RUN ALONG AND PLAY WITH YOUR CHEMISTRY SET!"

snape pressed his wand further into sirius's throat. 

"i could do it, you know. but why deny the dementors? they're so longing to see you."

dana did not listen further, she was getting fed up with the confrontation that's why both he and harry did the right thing they thought. 

"stupefy!—" "expelliarmus—!" snape was thrown by the bed with a huge thud, 

"harry! what did you just do?" ron said, horrified. 

"you attacked a teacher!" hermione accused, "don't be a hypocrite, hermione you set his robes on fire in our first year."

harry said dismissively, "tell me about peter pettigrew." harry urged at remus. 

"he was our friend before, he was the one who told about lily and james to voldemort. peter is alive,"

"no! peter pettigrew is dead!" harry insisted stubbornly, dana groaned. 

"he's alive! it's your friend's rat!" dana impatiently exclaimed, tapping her shoes. 

"what? she's gone mental! scabbers has been in our family for—"

"twelve years! curiously long life for a common garden rat! he's missing a toe isn't he?" sirius interrupted. 

"so what?" ron obliviously countered. harry's face came to a flick of realization. 

"all you can find of pettigrew is a—"

"finger! the dirty coward blasted off his finger so everyone would know he's dead! and transformed into a rat!" he inched closer. 

"show me!" harry said with much more determination, his wand is still in front of him. 

sirius tried to snatch the rat, "scabbers! what are you doing?"

both hermione and dana forcefully strained ron to avoid running back after his rat. 

"let him ron!"

sirius has finally caught the rat and both he and remus tried to catch him by the piano as they encircled around. 

scabbers tried to run behind by the window only to be hit by sirius's spell that brought him back to his human form. 

him plump body sprouted. they pulled his body out of the hole and revealed his sickly semi-bald hair, his brown frizzy hair fell onto his sides. 

his small shirt and shorts have outgrown his body, and then she heard ron muttered something, "i think i'm gonna be sick."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	9. Aurelia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ━━━━━  
> this chapter will contain a spoiler of remus and aurelia's story. i will update remus's story soon, but i will certainly not do it today. i hope you love it as well as you loved this story. 
> 
> thank you for the votes btw, i do appreciate it! p.s, i'd also like to make a good and justified background on why did peter betrayed his friends. it's a shame he wasted a few worth years of friendship over a cowardice decision. 
> 
> i'm not trying to redeem peter or trying to make his character lovable on that matter, but i just want to at least build a story for him. i've always thought he was always left out in the group for being an oddball.
> 
> i did underestimate peter and think he wouldn't do such things. it's a pity, if peter died over betraying them i bet potterheads would salute him for his bravery for being a true friend. i guess we can say is that not all gryffindors are brave. (not that i am stereotyping).   
> ━━━━━

"remus? sirius! my old friends—!"

peter attempted to escape on that matter, but both gentlemen pushed their friend to stop him from going out of the shrieking shack. 

peter drew his attention to harry who was rigid for about approximately three minutes. the traumatised look on his face says it all. he thought dana wasn't kidding when ron's rat was peter pettigrew. 

and as horrible as dana may sound, she can't help but feel the uncomfortable twitch of a knot in her stomach. he looked extremely horrendous, all in all. with the large front teeth and his dirty hands with a blasted off a finger. she thinks she's going to vomit any time soon. 

but ron's was worse. worst. and to think he plays with his rat all the time and pet him every day and let him sleep with him after percy pass the rat to him. his throat felt dry; he doesn't mean to sound judgemental, but he is ugly! no, it was an understatement.

peter held onto harry's jumper and whispered behind his ear, "harry, you look so much like your father. harry— he would have spared me."

sirius angrily pointed harry's wand at him. 

"how dare you speak to harry like that—! after what you have done to his parents, to us! we trusted you, peter. with a whole heart!"

sirius was raging, yet dana couldn't help but notice the hint of sadness in his voice. 

"you sold lily and james to voldemort, didn't you!" remus accused as they cornered him behind the piano. 

"i didn't mean to! the dark lord—you don't know what powerful weapon he had! ask yourself, sirius. what would you have done? what would you have done if you was me!"

sirius didn't need to think twice about what he would answer, "i would have died! i would have died rather than betray my friends!"

peter went under the piano and once more ran through the door but this time it was harry, who stopped him. 

"harry, harry, have mercy on me. james would have let me go. lily would've pitied me!" he let out a scream of fear as remus forcefully pulled him. 

"he doesn't deserve your mercy! and we will finish you once and for all!" 

peter fell with a loud thud as he slumped on the floor; covering his body with clouds of dust all over him. 

"together—"

"no!" harry suddenly interjected, to see surprise faces around him. especially remus. 

"harry, this man—" remus was panting in between words, he couldn't find the exact words he can utter. 

"i know what he is, but we'll take him to the castle." 

he glared at peter behind his glasses, "bless you boy, bless you!" 

he held onto harry's feet, "get off me! i said we'll take you to the castle, after that, the dementors can have you."

peter shuddered, like a coward he is. harry thought his father wouldn't want his two best friends to become criminals because of one person. they deserved so much more anything than being hunted down by the ministry.   
  
  
  


◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈  
  
  


after much more clarification from the backstory of his parents' death, sirius and dana have decided to assist ron who has been badly injured by the bite of sirius. which resulted in dana scolding sirius; however, he shakes her words off. 

she's been doing a lot of scolding to sirius lately, and he didn't mind. although, it's still a myth to the golden trio how they both decided to help each other amidst the accusation. 

hermione, on the other hand, was embarrassed, she was too decisive a while ago and she even downright accused her of helping sirius kill harry. 

"sorry about the bite. i reckon that twinges a bit." sirius sheepishly apologized while making their way outside the exit passage, while crookshanks was leading the way. 

"a bit? a bit! you almost tore my leg off!" ron complained about a pained expression. 

"i was going for the rat. normally, i have a very sweet disposition as a dog. more than once, james suggested that i make the change permanent. the tail i could live with. but the fleas, they're murder."

ron scowled deeply while harry laughed behind them and dana chuckled at the pun. 

"no pun intended," sirius quickly added. 

the frozen whomping willow was safe for now as both hermione and remus gripped peter tightly, careful not to escape. 

it was already dark, the gloomy surrounding was clouding all over, the light from the castle was illuminating far away. 

dana noticed the silence from sirius as he isolated himself from the teenagers who sat near the tree. 

"does it hurt so much?" dana gently asks, examining the wound on his legs. 

"don't move it every so often it might cause to open a bigger wound. let it rest for now until we get back to the castle."

ron nodded, while she stood up and went to console sirius, 

"you okay? you seemed sad,"

he turns around to see dana smiling up at him. he nodded solemnly, "i just miss those days with harry's father. with remus and lily of course. we've built so much memory there."

despite their height difference, dana did not fail to pat his shoulders, "maybe it's time to build a new one with your godson don't you think?"

she smiled encouragingly, while sirius grinned. 

"how old are you again? you're too young to be wise with your words."

dana raised a brow at this, "age is not a hindrance, you know. words have a great impact on us. but actions make big differences. whether it's good or bad."

"you're so much alike with your aunt. i never really get why she's in hufflepuff and not in ravenclaw."

"maybe because there's a lot of characteristics she has to qualify hufflepuff over ravenclaw. i'm not sure what quality are those since i grew up in beauxbatons."

"did you know, alena was harry's godmother?" sirius said, with a knowing glint. 

"i did, it was written in the documents. she left a property under harry's name." 

sirius stared at dana with wide eyes, "really?"

"i know, shocking isn't it? almost all of her properties are left behind in london. that's what i am here for. she left me something valuable to be taken care of."

"then why did you chose to stay with me over taking care of whatever you need to do?"

"well, i didn't think aunt alena wouldn't want to leave her friend behind despite not knowing what are his real intentions."

after a long silence, she noticed harry behind him with a small smile, "i'll leave you two both to talk." she gently gave a quick squeeze on harry's shoulder and took care of the two remaining teenagers behind. 

"where's remus and peter?" she asks as she didn't notice him trailing from everyone. ron shrugged while hermione pointed down the passage. 

"moony, you should've called me to help you." 

she ran down the passage whom remus was struggling from the stubborn rat. 

"remus, please, please i won't do it again. just let me go, i don't want to be locked up in azkaban."

"quiet, peter. you should've thought of that before betraying lily and james!" the bitter spat on remus's voice was almost evident as he glared at peter.

"here, let me help you. _petrificus totalus._ "

peter froze on the spot as they both pulled his feet carelessly up the whomping willow. 

dana was extremely tired just for today; with all the things she's done with the newfound friendship she has with her aunt's old friends. 

"harry!" hermione jumped up realizing something.

her and remus both went rigid when the light of the full moon sprouted out of the heavy dark clouds. with an instinct, she shouted in panic and ushered the teenagers to go away. 

"go, run! take pettigrew with you! we'll take care of him. now!"

remus was panting, his eyes dilated as soon as the moon passed through him. his eyes turned into an orbiting black. 

he let out a low and guttural scream of pain. sirius was running down towards dana and remus. 

"remus, my old friend! have you forgotten to take your potions tonight?"

his skin was as white as the snow, remus was panting deeply as both dana and sirius were struggling to calm him down. 

"go! now!" dana screamed at the top of her lungs as she slowly shifted into her animagus form. 

her feet began elongating into a huge serpentine body, her back started growing with purple wings that may reach up to fifteen feet in height. her eyes turned pure black, growing a small horn and beak on her mouth. 

the trio was suddenly startled at her appearance as she slithered into remus's full form of a werewolf to hold him off. she was squeezing him as he was trying to scar her animagus form. 

the huge occamy almost crushed the whomping willow itself as she tried to tame sirius; who's growling profusely. 

she made a sound of noise and motioned her head towards peter who is still frozen from the spell to get him back to the castle with the headmaster. 

she was internally screaming when she felt the trickle of blood from her body. she gritted her teeth when she heard sirius screamed. 

he was forcefully thrown by remus while dana let loose of his body. snape appeared by the tree who was furious at Harry but immediately turned around to see what was happening. 

his eyes travelled down to her, back to remus, howling through the night. he stood there and made a protective stance against the three. he raised his elongated hands and tried to hurt them, but dana was quick to trap him once more. 

her eyes locked with severus as she made another noise of command to lead back the students, including pettigrew. he got what she wants to say and levitated peter's body as he pushed harry, hermione and ron back to the castle. 

but harry has a different thought in his mind as he chased after sirius by the lake.   
  
  
  


◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈  
  
  
  


_**[** _ _**a** _ _**night;** _   
_**discussion with dumbledore before the capture of peter pettigrew]** _

"what brings you here at hogwarts, miss knight?" the old man, in his half-moon spectacles stared at dana who had a small resemblance of alena, his former student. 

"i'm here to prove sirius black's innocence, headmaster dumbledore."

he had expected it. he wouldn't be so surprised why.

"and why is that?"

"surely you know what is his connection with my late aunt. i want to help him, the way i know my aunt would help him. i also need a record of my aunt in this school."

_she was very straightforward._ dumbledore bemused, "and surely, as well, miss knight that you know what havoc you've caused since you left paris france to journey your way to london. he was accused as well because of your disappearance. and i find it ironic that you are helping him."

dana inhaled a sharp breath. she doesn't want to think of that as of the moment and neither tell him what are her intentions coming back to london. she knows he wants to know why, because he's curious. 

but he can do it easily by entering her mind, but she is not an open book to be read by anyone easily. she knows why her aunt sent her here for a reason. that's why she might as well use it as an advantage. to get to know her friends or any relations to anyone that might lead her to answer her questions. 

"i do not pretend to not know this, headmaster. but i will be honest with you. i need your help, and i'd give you something in exchange."

dumbledore's eyes gleamed knowingly. he stood up from his seat and went behind his chair to pick up a certain folder that contains the file of alena selena de luca.

he handed it out to dana who suspiciously looked through the files. while on the other hand, dumbledore entwined both of his fingers together. 

"you must have known mister lupin, and i trust sirius have told you about him." dana reluctantly nodded. 

"you see, miss knight, i have a particular student as well who recently had a child. he was older than sirius and mister lupin. she had a child and was nowhere to be found. her magic has been forcefully sealed. and she never let her child attend hogwarts. 

and i perfectly know that mister lupin recognized the child but he doesn't want to give information about her. and i was wondering if you could look for her for me. without the knowledge of mister lupin, of course."

"what is her name if i may ask, headmaster?"

"aurelia satana laurentius, she's currently residing in her foster parents' house."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gal Gadot as Aurelia Satana Laurentius.
> 
> Aurelia & Remus's story is already published at wattpad. Check it out! I'll post the first chapter later.


	10. The Knight Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry haven't posted in a while, I haven't coped up with my loss yet and I am very sorry to keep you all waiting. Thank you for the kudos and those who kept reading the story. :)

**_[the aftermath of transformation]_ **

the knights were adamantly angry. they thought they were right about sirius's unmistaken kidnapping of their precious gem, and the minister was losing his mind as well; he couldn't take in all of the eventful day with the escape of buckbeak and the unconscious body of dana polaris at hogwarts with werewolf scars in her chest. a huge gash. 

and to sum it all up, dumbledore went to him himself to inform him about peter pettigrew's alive. and the horror etched on his face was an amusement to watch much to dumbledore's entertainment. and now sirius is being attempted to aid once more and perform a hearing next summer and settle all his cases once and for all. 

and much to the surprise of the wizarding community of england, most of them can be heard by the streets approving of cornelius fudge's judgement and it made his heart swell that the people trust him so much. because of this, an innocent man will be free anytime soon and chuck back someone at azkaban well-deservingly. but at the same time, some are still doubtful. but he doesn't blame them. most of them are still afraid of the trauma of the first wizarding war. and it's better to be cautious than be gullible. 

and that supposedly settles everything, except for the dramatic flairs of the knights. it's them that he needs to prioritize this time because there are a wound and scratch in the woman's body and no doubt she's been hurt and the deal was made clear that not even a single bruise will be seen. 

"will she be alright, poppy?" there was an uncomfortable silence as the trio, sirius, mcgonagall, dumbledore, snape and fudge sat and stood in front of dana's bed with solemn looks. 

"she certainly will, headmaster. her wounds heal faster than we all expected."

snape silently scoffs at this, yes he wished the wound would last a bit longer than he wanted to strip lupin out of his job. but much to more of his surprise, he was the one who resigned after knowing to snape let slip of his condition. _on purpose._

but remus doesn't blame him. and because of this, it made him annoyed to his core. he wants to see a wave of satisfied anger painted on his face, but he was smiling tenderly like an idiot as if assuring him he made the right decision and he didn't know if he'd be glad that the position he wanted is empty once more or be extremely furious because he still hasn't had the revenge that he wanted. 

sirius, the one who almost killed him will possibly be free because he helped them carry wormtail in the castle with an immobile body. he made sure to obliviate him after so that he wouldn't know of the other events he had seen and that includes _him, helping them._

snape never felt more disgusted to himself. what an absolute moron he is! after another momentary silence, a sound of footsteps could be heard from outside and saw professor lupin standing up with his trunk and the marauder's map in his hands. 

sirius stood up, with his decent clothes and went to console his best friend. 

"ah mister lupin," dumbledore as jolly as ever, stood up from his seat and gave a smile to lupin. remus stepped inside the infirmary with a guilty look when he saw the young woman lying on the bed. 

"i'll be off now, headmaster."

"ah, certainly, of course, may i-escort you outside?"

at this, remus shook his head vigorously. 

"someone is waiting for me outside, you won't be needing to." sirius gasped as if he knew who it was. 

"is it _her_ , _moony_?" remus nodded timidly, sirius excitingly pulled his best friend outside and saw how he yelped in surprise. 

"you're here! i can't believe you're here!" the remaining teenagers and students curiously peeled over from their seats as if interested in who's outside but dumbledore knew who it is and she didn't want to spoil the fun for his colleagues and students.

remus nodded once more and walks away from the door before saying, "harry, please give my sincere apologies to dana."

from which everyone gave him a sympathetic look, excluding snape of course. as always. sirius remained after, and the people inside the infirmary left except for harry and sirius. 

"so where do we go now, sirius?" there was a pause before sirius smiled genuinely, "well if you want, i say we visit your dad's childhood home don't you think? to recall the memories."

the boy eagerly nodded, and watches his godfather with fascination as they continue to talk and suddenly harry brought up how his godfather and dana met. to this, sirius tentatively answered. 

"she was the niece of your godmother, alena. she's a potions mistress and a healer. _healer in the making_ if i may add."

"how?"

"she died as well even before she could become one."

"well that explains a lot, but how did she die?"

"that, i don't know because i've been sent to azkaban that time. only dana knows why."

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈

dana woke up with a groggy feeling, her head was pounding heavily against the soft comfortable pillow of the infirmary. when she woke up, harry and sirius was nowhere to be found and she was met by the knights who sighed simultaneously. 

her mother was the first to hug her tightly, "you scared us to death, _cheri._ don't ever leave us again!"

she was crying as she hugged her daughter for dear life together with zion, her father. the disapproving look of her grandmother sent a nervousness in her system. 

"you could've been killed! you just disappeared into thin air, you're bloody lucky fleur noticed it or else we wouldn't have known you're gone! we even asked a favour from the french ministry."

DANA WAS UNDOUBTEDLY EMBARRASSED. _no,_ they didn't have to do that. they could have bothered some peaceful lives from their ministry who has their job to take care of. instead, they were after her. 

"mama! you didn't have to do that, i was completely fine-"

"but we weren't!" she sternly replied with equal stubbornness in her voice. 

if there's one thing zion has fallen in love with his wife, it's her equal determination and ambitions for herself. and her selflessness. the one thing his child inherited. 

they all watched as the two debated in a heated argument. clairemont have had enough of her daughter and pushed away from her and her son-in-law outside the hall; seeing she wanted to talk to her in private. 

and the couple gladly did, but with one last glare at her daughter, she spoke, "we will talk about this matter at home."

dana's head was downcast, tears were threatening to spill from her eyes. it's not about her mother keeping a secret about her inheritance, it's about what they've been doing these past years. 

their family has been broken and they keep trying to patch things up. they were so keen on keeping everything to themselves including her parent's attempt to filing divorce with each other. they are so good at keeping it cool like nothing is wrong between both of them. 

and did they considered her dumb after knowing her grandmother is sick? and almost dying. she has a magical disease that not even mungo or merlin themselves can't heal her. it was a newfound disease in france. when a person feels distressed nor absolutely at the highest peak of their emotion, they vomit black ink. 

when it occurs every so often, the black ink turns darker and darker and it is a symptom of getting worst. it is like cancer, as what the muggles called. it is not a simple wound that can't be stitched up or a drinking up potion for mending bones. positive demise is the ultimate result. 

not to mention, their relation with grindelwald. it is an abomination. to dana's views. she is not a power-hungry moron. she does not desire ultimate domination, she does not ask for blood purity. she doesn't want any of their fucked up views. does it even matter?

"tell me what's going on with you, dana?" 

dana always felt her solace around her grandmother. she was more than what she could ask for. if anything, she's glad about her because she witnessed what she's been through despite their opposite views in life. she was a great listener and she was the one who always rants about her problems. 

and she would always comfort her and tell her positive feedbacks and criticize her negative wrongdoings. 

she told her what she came for, and she was intently watching her with a fixated gaze.

"may i see the documents?"

she nodded and abruptly stood up before her hands made their way to the bedside table and took her bag. 

she handed her the legalize papers and scanned through them. 

_herein this set forth, the last will of alena selena de luca._

_to dana polaris de luca-knight, my niece, i leave all the possessions i left in england including my wizard bank accounts; vault 201, 112, 120, and 122._

_my properties include selena de luca manor, de luca shop potions,_ _and a cabin cottage in Southern Woods of Mauve._

_to harry james potter, my godson, i leave my sole property in paris france, my bookshop that may contain your hearts desires._

clairemont secretly shook her head when she saw all the properties alena left for her granddaughter. but what dana and her family wouldn't know, is that she will urge her granddaughter to find these properties herself. 

"i don't get it, grams, mom doesn't want me to know these things. if i'm being honest, i only stole the document in hers and dad's room."

"and she never suspected it?"

"no, i left a duplicate in her drawer. oh,- and grams? i saw this necklace in her vault."

her hands dived through the charmed bag and took out the silver sign of deathly hallows in her hands. 

dana purposely showed the necklace to her to confirm all her questions she's been meaning to ask out loud. she didn't miss how her eyes scintillate in excitement and took out hers. the same golden triangular necklace. 

"this is the deathly hallows! but i thought your aunt destroyed it?"

"why did she destroy it?" she pressed while her hands are beginning to sweat. 

she didn't answer immediately; she grabbed the silver necklace and deformed it. she took the circle to her left hand and put it back to the aureate triangle while she took out another piece of it in her pocket and showed a copper small miniature of the elder wand and pieced it together. 

the necklace glowered, her eyes closed tightly as the light began to engulf both of them. she suddenly knocked onto her bed and fell with a loud thud. 

voices were surrounding her as she finds herself being pulled with two pairs of arms. 

"mom, what have you done to my daughter!"

"i'm not doing anything, darling. she fell on her own."

"miss knight, can you hear me? we heard voices."

her eyes began to wander across her fogged up vision and waited for some time to clear away to blur. 

"dana? are you alright,"

_no._ she wanted to blurt out but her throat was dry, to the point that she cannot speak. her head was aching badly, pounding every second. 

and then, she heard that voice. 

" _dana, my darling._ "

she could have sworn she shivered in so much intimidation. 


	11. Free Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the second part of the book! gof. I changed major parts of the story since I will just be basing the story from the movies and I want to focus on how Dana will cope up her new life in London and leave all her life behind Paris to explore and discover her aunt's last will that was given to her. 
> 
> I will also post the other three remaining stories soon and it is highly recommended you all also read it because these four stories are somehow connected with each other.

[one month later...]

the incident with dana's grandmother took a huge chunk out of hers to say it the least. like she was made out of a new person; not to mention she began hearing voices and she doesn't know if it is a good sign even in the wizarding world. 

she never got the chance to say goodbye to the trio and even sirius himself who helped her as well. her mother just swooped in instant and never let her got the chance to give her final sentiments. but she and sirius had both ways of communicating and it's very surprising after she heard he was going to have his trials and be a free man anytime soon.

and she's sad she can't witness it herself. over the past month, they exchanged hundreds of letters and giving snippets about what's inside london and what are the upcoming events. 

he's been keeping her sane despite the relentless argument with her mother and grandmother. her grams always kept defending her with all the accusations her mother threw at her. she was furious for no reason all the time and it irks her as well. 

they were both self-destructive bombs. when one is triggered, together they'll make a big explosion. now that she came back to paris, she and fleur spend more time with gabrielle and explored paris and started planning out about her being a trainee at st. mungo's. 

she had a very good grade with fleur, they both made sure they are going to achieve something and make use of it in the future. on fleur's judgement, she thinks she is pressuring herself on almost everything and she is her saving grace to keep her perfectly functioning. 

"grande soeur, 'ow 'ave you bin?"

both dana and fleur were walking down the streets of paris as they decided to stop by a cosy café to loosen up a bit after the eventful things happened in just one month. 

"i'm doing fine, honestly. but i am still nervous about the upcoming training."

fleur smiled gently at the manner and gave her hand a small squeeze. 

"you'll be fine az long az you work 'ard for eet."

dana giggles, "i swear we're both horrible at english."

fleur grinned, "beecoz we 'ar better in french. we speak 'd language of sexy."

dana smirked at this and shook her head playfully. they both left the café and decided to have a visit to the ministry. but before that, they both went to the cemetery where her grandfather was buried with her sister. 

the place was eerie, apart from the natural chills they get, there were piles of leaves scattered along the earthen soil. every tombstone was dirty and ghastly. 

the walls were old enough to crumble on their own; wrapped in a green mould. like it has never been cleaned for a long time. she felt fleur came closer and gave her forearm a tight squeeze. 

they both find themselves entering an unfamiliar arena with marbled benches and centre stage. the place was quiet and still. one drop of a pin and it feels like the place would wake up anytime soon. and then she heard that familiar voice again. 

"dana, my darling. you cannot ignore me forever." she instantly froze on her spot. 

"this eez 'd place 'ere grindelwald gathers 'is followers." 

she heard fleur whispered with an involuntary shudder. 

"our ancestors 'as bin 'ere and mama and papa said the aurors saw 'im conjured a blue dragon that almost deestroy the city of paris."

[meanwhile in court trials of british ministry...]

"disciplinary hearing of the fourteenth of july, into offences committed by sirius orion black. resident at twelve grimmauld place, interrogators: cornelius oswald fudge, minister of magic; amelia susan bones, head of the department of magical law enforcement; dolores jane umbridge, senior undersecretary to the minister."

the minister inhaled a sharp breath as he stared at the man in front of him. he was more decent this time, his shoulder-length hair was curled into fine curls, tied into a man bun, he was wearing his signature ring at his left hand on his ring finger. 

his grown moustache all over his face was shaved neatly while his face was more bright. his grey eyes became prominent. his height stood out from his formal pair of black tuxedo and his red tie. 

"witness for the defense: albus percival wulfric brian dumbledore, harry james potter, hermione jean granger and ronald bilius weasley."

sirius subtly held his ring and twisted it while his feet crossed against each other. 

"you are sirius black, no?"

"the one and only,"

"and are you aware of the accusations charged against you for killing thirteen muggles and the potters secret keeper? and are you also aware of your conspiracy with the dark lord?"

"yes, i am well aware of that and i would like to prove them wrong."

"then can we have your consent on using a veritaserum for interrogation?"

"yes, use as many as you want."

the minister motioned his hands to amelia bones sitting with the other member of winzengamots were heard from whispering with each other at the lack of his struggling. 

no, sirius wouldn't give them the satisfaction of making himself guilty of a crime he would never do. he is the godfather of the son of the man who took him in and made him like his own blood. he would never hurt them, let alone rat them out to the dark lord.

when bones gave him the veritaserum, the effect on his body made him relaxed but his muscles were tensed and his head felt lightweight. like his head was floating. 

"who are you?"

"sirius orion black, son to walburga and orion black."

"where were you the night before the potters died?"

"i was on a mission together with the other aurors to catch the death eaters roaming around diagon alley."

"did you kill peter pettigrew?"

"no, i certainly do not intend to. after what i heard about the potters, i tried to look for their secret keeper and ask him questions. but i found no signs of struggle when i got to his place. and figured he was the one who ratted out my friends."

"then who killed the muggles?"

"when i crossed paths with peter pettigrew, he tried to get away with me and blasted off his finger. his explosion causes to kill the other muggles around us."

with the intense interrogation between men, harry's chest was heaving in and out with anger at peter pettigrew. 

both ron and hermione were on both of his sides to calm his nerves but he was glaring hard at peter, sitting beside dumbledore with a full body-bind curse. 

"to prove this testimony, i shall ask for the witnesses to stand up to the accused and give us shreds of evidences. harry james potter, you may sit by the chair to begin the process of interrogation."

harry instantly surged up on his seat like he was waiting to get his head out of the water and strutted down the bench before giving peter a last glare which he made a squeal of fear. 

"state your name, and address."

"harry james potter, currently living at number four privet drive, little whinging, surrey."

"what is your relationship with the accused?"

"i am his godson,"

"and what evidence you may have to prove him innocent?"

"we have peter pettigrew with us."

the whole court exploded into chatters and shameless cries of disdain. 

"that is impossible!" the other shouted. 

"silence!" the minister shouted whilst his wand was on his neck, his voice is echoing. 

dumbledore watches with amusement as the members panicked. 

"bring him to me,"

that was hermione and ron's cue to grip the man down the chair. 

hermione made a bold move and tied him down the chair with magic to avoid from escaping in front of the minister. she was well aware of the consequences, but the minister doesn't seem to mind and neither is hermione. 

she doesn't want harry to lose his chance again to be with a family and it was the least thing she knew she could do for him. after all, everyone needs to be rebellious sometimes. 

everything went well. everything went very smooth, until the last minute of the hearing, the interrogators have decided. but there's always someone who had to disagree. any guesses? well... 

"after a little deliberation between the interrogators, all have decided that the result will be on the hands of the members of winzengamot," cornelius said out loud. 

amelia bones cleared her throat before standing up on her seat. 

"those in favour of conviction,"

dolores umbridge raised a hand together with the other fifty people. sirius palpably looked pale. 

"those in favour of clearing the accused of all charges."

the majority raised a hand, including fudge, amelia, the witnesses, and surprisingly peter himself."

and that's when cornelius made his final judgement. 

"sirius orion black, you are hereby declared for cleared of all charges ... peter pettigrew, you are charged with convicted murder of thirteen muggles and conspiring with the dark lord. any signs of fighting will be used against you. your azkaban cell number 21 awaits you at the high security prison. aurors; dawlish and shackelbolt, please escort mr. pettigrew outside and lead him back to azkaban."

the trio yelped, while dumbledore silently smiled as a familiar gleam passed over behind his half-moon spectacles. 

the teenagers instantly hugged sirius, but mostly harry. 

"sirius, you're free!" sirius was out of words as he stared at cornelius who had an amused smile on his face. he is a free man. at last. after twelve years. 

the next day, sirius's face was all over the daily prophet and was claimed not guilty. mostly he would feel light-hearted because he was declared innocent. but he still felt alone after everything. 

remus is in the muggle world currently doing his job as a waiter in a café with aurelia, their friend. while he stucked at grimmauld place who seems to be doing nothing but to be pestered by his mother and their house elf, kreacher. 

the fireplace of grimmauld place suddenly lit up when dumbledore walked down shamelessly towards sirius who had a startled expression. he tried to keep his expression tight. he doesn't need company right now. 

"sirius, you need to have a little sunlight, my friend." 

sirius smiled bitterly, well, he does need one. but he doesn't know what he would do. he doesn't have pending missions. 

"i have no interest in going out on a day like this, albus. not when i don't necessarily intend to do something."

dumbledore gently smiled, time to make minerva pay her bet on mine. 

"well, i believe i have two tickets for the upcoming world cup. but i don't have someone on my mind today and i wouldn't want to leave hogwarts. after all, i need to sort things out before school starts on september first."

sirius's head gazes upwards to see himself grinning from ear to ear. he thought of harry, but dumbledore beat him to it. 

"oh, and harry is going by the way. with the weasleys. do you have someone in mind?"

sirius stuttered, "w-well, i supposed but she's all over paris."

dumbledore stared at his wristwatch he just bought on the muggle streets. 

"well i believe it's already noon and the portkey i rented is going to paris."

sirius gasped in disbelief at dumbledore, "but i can't just take her away! she has life in paris and—"

"dear, sirius, i believe she'll return to london anytime soon." dumbledore turned around. 

"but perhaps a little change of schedule wouldn't hurt her right?"

the next thing sirius knew, dumbledore already left a medium-sized card and two tickets for the world cup on his table, right there in front of him. 

he stared at the soft red and blue card with an anchor in the middle and saw behind was gold letters carved in a cursive form. 

the bucket portkey will lead you to the french ministry. 

good luck with finding her. 

have fun. use this card anytime and it'll summon the bucket back to london.

a.d

"the things you do for me, albus," sirius muttered under his breath while he stared at the bucket at his foot. he grabbed his chelsea boot at the shoe racks and hastily put on a royal blue wool coat paired with dress pants. 

while he was putting on his shoe, the bucket started activating, while he was busy playing with his hair and put on a bun as he rolled up his long sleeves. 

he took the ticket and the parchment before he found himself dispersing under a beam of white light. 

[back at the french ministry]

dana was strutting about the halls of the ministry the next day, whilst she smiled at anyone who nods at her in recognition. she was busy fixing her documents to give her slip and approved to be an official healer trainee at st. mungo's. 

there are so many requirements she needs assistance but completely brushed it off and does it on her own. while she was talking to someone at the front desk, her name was being called and saw madam maxime and gabrielle with a smile. 

"headmistress!" she grinned running up to the half-giant. 

"my dear! it's been a while since you last graduated!" she enthusiastically said. 

she laughed as they began walking the opposite way, and talked about a lot of things not until she brought up her plans for london. 

"i was about to talk this with you since i am going to london, headmistress. i won't be around paris for a while." she smiled sadly. 

but the woman laughs, "not to 'orry dear. we 'ar going there as well."

dana creased her forehead. 

"why?"

"beauxbatons was invited at hogwarts to compete with the other two schools including durmstrang with the upcoming triwizard."

as the headmistress expected, her eyes widened in surprise, "but i thought that was before? i thought they wouldn't want to cause any more death tolls?"

"yes, i have spoken with dumblydore about it and he said they have planned it well. after all who am i to decline since it has been a tradition all over the wizarding world?"

she grinned, "so you are planning to invite me are you?" she said cheekily. the headmistress nodded, "only if you'd want to?"

"i'd like to headmistress! shall we meet there?"

"of course, young one."

as soon as their conversation ended, there was a familiar smile crept on her lips on the way out of the french ministry. she'll go back to hogwarts, and that means she's about to meet the trio again. and sirius! she can't wait to see his reaction. 

"well, well, having an afternoon stroll are you?"

dana's body halted just outside the ministry whilst her head whipped around to see a familiar man with his raven curly hair. her heart began pumping rapidly as she met his familiar cool grey eyes. there is no doubt that it was the eye of a certain black she knew perfectly well. 

"sirius!"

it seems that the tables have turned and she was the one who got surprised this time. she hugged him with a huge smile on her face. 

"what are you doing here in paris?" she said excitingly. he took out a ticket from his pocket and showed her. 

"oh, my— is this for me? but how—"

sirius shrugged casually, "well— i wouldn't want to enjoy the match for myself now am i? besides, i can walk by the streets freely now."

he chuckled while her eyes glistened in happiness. 

"for real?" she jumped up and down while he shook his head with a slight smirk on his face. 

"for real," 

"this is wonderful! congratulations!"

sirius had noticed how often she hugs him, but for some reason, they both don't mind at all. 

sirius and dana decided to visit the bookshop of her aunt she had left to harry's care. while sirius, being a real gentleman, offered her his forearm as both locked arm in arm with the papers on her hands as they reach down the alley. 

they reached in front of the old signage of a book shop next to a familiar house. an old man who's as white as the parchment walked out with all platinum white hair. his stiff body stood there as he watches them with curious glances. 

"and who might you be?" his rough voice drowned her thoughts as he stared at the old man. 

"excuse me, monsieur? do you happen to know if this place was owned by a de luca?"

"ah, yes? selena de luca is it? i am one of the caretakers of this shop. sadly, the young lass passed away and left it under the new celebrity of hogwarts."

dana heard sirius chuckle in approval. dana wouldn't want to ask who is it because she thinks she already knows the answer. 

"that boy, good one. saved my stone, but alas, i have lived a long life and maybe it's time to rest now."

the man walks away without a word, leaving them both stunned. 

"was that?—" sirius said letting her finish his thoughts. 

"i think he is,"

"you know if i am to be admitted to st. mungo's i'd expect you to be the one to take care of me." sirius playfully teased while they go back to the last place he went for the portkey.

"oh don't be ridiculous, i'm still a trainee. well— unless you want to return home with the worst injury i'd gladly help you with that department. i am good at hurting people, one of my expertise." 

she said in a heavy sarcasm while sirius cackled while they both apparated at the wide meadows of wild flowers; the strong gush of wind blew her hair as they both watch the horizon, where the sky meets the sea. from afar was a cliff and below the cliff is a roaring wild waves. 

"this place is beautiful, i could live here."

sirius smiled fondly, he thought it was nice as well living in a new country away from his forsaken house. but not unless his godson still needs parental guidance, he won't be going anywhere and he made a promise to his brother. 

"ready?" once the bucket was summoned, she instantly felt nauseous. 

"i hate travelling by portkey. makes me want to throw up every time."

sirius stared at her with amusement, "you'll be fine,"

"you wish you didn't say that,"


	12. Quidditch World Cup

  
  


  
  
  
  


dana had that permanent grin on her face as soon as she and sirius landed by the wide lawn of the burrow; where the floors are put together. their forearms were still locked together as the young girl squealed and pressed onto sirius's forearm tightly. 

"are they all here? i'm so excited!" sirius threw his head backwards and started laughing at dana's enthusiasm. they walk by the front door and saw a woman, from which dana guessed she was in her mid thirty's. she was carrying a knitting kit with a welcoming smile. 

"oh, sirius! it's good to see you! harry's been dreading to meet you again!"

"molly! _ah—_ it's good to be back," they exchanged hugs before the woman turns to look at me, "i am mrs. weasley, and you must be the unlucky girl whom sirius snatched to paris."

dana giggled and nodded, "hey!" sirius yelped, "dumbledore informed us about your arrival, and i suggest you two join us for the late lunch. i'm sure you two are famished."

they both nodded at the same time before both of them looked at each other and grinned from ear to ear. the loud chatters were heard from the corner of the burrow as the trio, and the weasleys were all scrambling around to fix a table by the garden and eat all together.

"harry! sirius is here, and you three have a visitor."

molly shouted, getting inside the kitchen while she and sirius went to sit by the couch. dana was so fascinated by the house and kept looking around. 

"sirius! and—wait, dana!"

dana smirked as she stood up and faced the golden boy with open arms. harry threw himself at her, as she giggled. behind them were both hermione and ron. 

she messed with harry's long raven hair before grinning, "we're both excited to see you—" she looked at sirius who winked at harry, "we have good news for you. but i figured we'll talk about it later," 

he grinned, showing his perfect set of white teeth before speeding behind her to meet sirius. she looks back at ron and hermione who stood there awkwardly while fidgeting with their hands. 

"well? don't just stand there, you want to welcome me?" she fought the urge to laugh as they both flustered at the same time before hugging her. 

"y'know, i never got the chance to bond with you three. you see, i came back because i'll be attending hogwarts as well," she whispered as if it was a secret not to tell out loud. 

while sirius and harry edged away from them, ron and hermione looked surprised at the bombshell she dropped. 

"what? you're studying there as well?—"

"oh, don't be silly ron. i don't want to spend any more years on books! i am a guest from beauxbatons. we have a special event this year."

"oh my—" hermione gasped with wide eyes, "do you guessed what i am saying? it's one of the largest traditions in the wizarding world." 

hermione nodded vigorously, whilst the weasley family was outside, ron led them from the garden as sirius and dana walk behind. 

"that kid is something else," sirius shook his head at harry who was laughing at something hermione said about ron.

they were busy gazing at everyone when two identical boys appeared to each of their sides. 

"hello, young lad—"

"and lass!—"

"welcome to our lovely—" 

"home," they chorused. 

"i am fred, and this is george."

"we are the magical mischief-makers of hogwarts."

dana snorted, narrowing her eyes slightly, "something tells me you're both lying about your names."

"nah," they sync once more, one is fighting the urge to laugh. 

dana's eyes flickered knowingly, as she carelessly invaded george's head (which he introduced himself as fred). 

"liar," she singsong. 

"yeah—well, you got us." dana laughed while sirius shook his head. 

"better luck next time, boys." he snickered patting their shoulders.

lunch has started and molly introduced her to everyone including her two older sons who just arrived exactly for the world cup. there were series of greetings, while the third older brother, percy just nodded in appreciation and came back to sticking his nose to his hardbound book whilst bill smiled kindly and charlie and she started talking with each other about dragons. 

charlie took his chance to discuss his passion for dragons in romania while bill joined the conversation afterwards and talks about his experience as a curse breaker in egypt. 

dana found her comfort with the boys whose as close as her age and started asking advice for her upcoming career as a healer. 

"is it hard? i mean is it difficult when you started at first?" she inquired while she had a spoon on her mouth full of mashed potatoes. 

"it is, but as long as you love what you're doing you can easily cope up with the new environment." bill said coolly, "take charlie here for example. who, i think anytime soon will transform into a real dragon. _and kudos by the way for successfully coping up with their natural habitat. and if i can perfectly remember next month is their season for laying eggs and i want to see how charlie lay his own—_ "

dana was already cackling from her chair as she watched the two of them run in circles by the long table as they both disturbed the calm mrs. weasley; who shrieked once more. the twins and ginny cheered as they both chased each other. 

charlie tackled him on the ground, as the cheers get louder and louder. mr. weasley looked pleased, watching live-action but coughs lightly when he saw his wife glaring down in his direction. 

"that is enough, bill, charlie!" 

percy got annoyed, he stood up and took all his books on his lap before barging inside with a loud thud. sirius was beside dana who took her attention back to his. 

"having fun?"

"totally!" she grinned. sirius gave away his trademark signature smirk, "what're you three talking about anyway?"

"well, not much, just about our career. i'm just a little bit anxious for myself. anyway, enough about me! what about you? what would you do?"

sirius was surprised at the sudden interest, but he smiled nonetheless, "i've always wanted to become a transfiguration teacher or astronomy teacher."

"i'm sure you'll be an awesome teacher," she said hyping him up, whom sirius took the gesture as friendly. 

"well, as long as there's a vacant position, i could always ask for dumbledore."

"of course, _sir black._ " dana bit her lower lip unconsciously with a smirk tugging on her lips. 

sirius shot her a playful glare.

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈

after having lunch with the weasleys, sirius decided that the three of them, including dana, should go back to grimmauld place and meet back at the world cup the next day. which leaves them three of them doing crazy stuff that would take out each personal problems on their mind. 

sirius badly wanted to take custody of his godson, but the thing is, dumbledore wouldn't let him no matter what he does or no matter how much he sweetened his words. the boy's guardians were cruel to him, and he almost took advantage of his liberty to not disapparate and strangle those useless muggles. 

he can see those growing purple shade of bruises under his long sleeves or the permanent mark on his face. he was losing his patience. knowing he had a future healer by his side, he asked for dana's favour and heal his fresh wounds and any traces of his bruises.

the next morning, sirius was up with a cigarette stick on his mouth while he watches the world around him revolve. unbeknownst to him, dana walks inside the kitchen, yawning softly. 

"oh, hey, sirius why are you up so early?"

sirius almost immediately threw away his cigarette and broke out of his reverie. 

"nothing, i was about to make breakfast. but i figured you and harry wouldn't eat burnt eggs and slices of bacon." he smiled sheepishly while awkwardly scratching his neck. 

dana twisted her lips and chuckled lowly before she motioned for sirius to come as she conjured the pans and kitchen bowls by the counter. 

"here, i'll help you. i'll fry the bacon, you mix the eggs from there and i'll do the vegetable fried rice."

sirius shook his head; _he would never get used to cooking but he is used to her commands._

"why are you so good at this?" he wailed in frustration as his arm went limp from stirring. 

dana shrugs in response, "beauxbatons doesn't only teach girls how to act accordingly, they are also taught how to be a good wife material."

"... if that's the case, then you're already overqualified." he joked, while she snorted. 

"jokes on them because i don't want to settle down yet. at least not just yet."

just as she and sirius were done cooking, harry woke up with his dislocated glasses and messy hair spluttered all over his forehead and eyes. 

"good morning, golden boy, had a good night sleep?" dana cheerfully gushed while putting down the bacons to the table. sirius was behind her grinning as she interacts with his godson. 

"not—really," he yawned tiringly while he drapes around his hand on the other table. 

"go freshen up first before eating,"

harry nodded before standing up, leaving the kitchen. 

"something's bothering that kid," dana said out loud, "you think so?" sirius inquired with genuine curiosity. 

"yes, did you see how tired he is?"

"i did notice, but i thought he just needed some sleep."

"maybe he's having nightmares?" dana suggested with a shrug. 

"maybe, what's the worst that could happen to him?"

"i don't know, but he'll have to be prepared at all times. especially if voldemort is trying to hunt him down every year."

"to be honest, i think he should. given everything that's going on this year. the triwizard is a tradition for so long i can't imagine how things work out, but it is a dangerous tournament."

"yes, i'm a little bit concerned because madam maxime told me triwizard has been reportedly known for countless death tolls."

sirius internally shuddered at the thought. 

"he'll be alright, if things get tough, i hope he's strong enough to face it."

dana timidly smiled, "he'll be okay, he's a strong kid. but i think it's okay if he's afraid too. he's still underage, he has a bright future ahead of him; more than facing voldemort's threat."  
  


◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈  
  


"i love magic," dana heard harry muttered while staring at the camping tent inside. dana giggled at his pure reaction. 

"harry go unpack with your friends. we'll proceed to the arena later."

while dana decided to settle down on a corner, sirius has other plans and pulled her outside. 

"hey, arthur? we'll just take a tour outside!"

he pulled dana outside with a mischievous grin, which made dana extremely nervous. 

"sirius, where are you taking me?"

"relax, i'm not going to do anything wrong, i promise."

"i don't like the sound of that at all," dana hissed, as sirius laughed. 

they both went outside the small-looking tent and ran away from the crowded place where they took the portkey. there was a view from afar, where the sea was widely seen from their position. the vast cliff from the left side had a good view below and clouded with mists. 

"the last one to go to the end of the cliff pays fifteen galleons!"

she heard sirius shouted as he shamelessly transformed into his dog form and ran before she could even snap out of her trance. 

"hey! that's not fair!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.   
  
  
  


◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈  
  
  
  


"blimey, dad how far up are we?" ron began complaining as his legs began to wobble from the several stairs they're climbing for the past minutes. 

"well put it this way: if it rains, you'll be the first to know."

lucius malfoy with his blond hair. dana recognized the malfoy, because after all who wouldn't if his family hasn't been bugging hers for the past decades. starting from lucius's grand father. they were so desperate to cling into a shining jewel just to mask their pretentious failing fame and glory after the first fall of voldemort. 

as they reached the minister's box, lucius had started calling out the weasleys. and it made sirius's blood boil. but dana was showing her calm demure in front of the boastful malfoys. 

"good lord, arthur,” he said softly. “what did you have to sell to get seats in the top box? surely your house wouldn’t have fetched this much?” fudge, who wasn’t listening, said, “lucius has just given a very generous contribution to st. mungo’s hospital for magical maladies and injuries, arthur.   
he’s here as my guest.” “how — how nice,” said mr. weasley, with a very strained smile.

"he wouldn't understand, fudge, they do not know what it's like to donate galleons. they have none of those." he snickered, as his eyes turned to dana and sirius. 

"finally, miss knight, in the flesh."

dana pursed her lips, and showcases her fakest smile and didn't bother to conceal it. 

"i would appreciate it, mr. malfoy if you have some decency not to drag your desperate attempts of boasting your false missionaries. so might i suggest you back down? we paid the same seat, we watch the same game."

fudge looked uncomfortable, while lucius' gaze was already following the trail of the young knight who pulled the weasleys and sirius who had a snide smirk across his way. 

before they could completely walk away, lucius pulled the girl's wrist, but dana immediately twisted his making his face contort into a pained expression. 

"watch where you put your hands or i'll snap it for you." she hissed in a whisper before harshly glaring at the malfoys. 

"you disgust me,"

"ladies and gentlemen … welcome! welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second quidditch world cup!”

the spectators screamed and clapped. thousands of flags waved, adding their discordant national anthems to the racket. the huge blackboard opposite them was wiped clear of its last message (bertie bott’s every flavour beans — a risk with every mouthful!) and now showed 

BULGARIA: 0, IRELAND: 0. 

“and now, without further ado, allow me to introduce … the bulgarian national team mascots!” the right-hand side of the stands, which was a solid block of scarlet, roared its approval. 

“i wonder what they’ve brought,” said mr. weasley, leaning forward in his seat.

"i can't believe you're a veela!" after what hours hermione spent wondering how dana was a veela, she got used to it. 

every word she spits out feels like a real burn in her skin; like it disgusts her after what she had heard from dana. 

she didn't know what hermione had against veela's but she didn't deny it either, seeing the distaste in her. sirius saw how uncomfortable she is and decided to distract the young lady so that they'll both have some alone time to discuss something more than her original heritage. 

"are you alright?" sirius concernedly asks with his hands on her shoulders as they watch the teenagers goofing around. 

"i don't know, i just— i just don't know what to say. I guess i could never get used to people being disgusted by our nature as a veela. they always think of us as veela's who lures men to false love. the whispers never stopped till this day. and i am getting more and more self-loathing. it's not my fault that i am like this."

she mumbled while busy ranting with a pout, "i'm worn off, honestly. it's the same thing over and over."

before sirius could say anything, an ear-splitting scream resonated across the vicinity of camping tents resulting to alert the adults, even dana stood up alarmingly. 

sirius was about to go outside and follow arthur when both harry and dana pulled the hem of his shirt. 

"sirius, don't—" dana shook his head, "stay here," she added. 

arthur weasley came back moments after rushing on his feet with his three older sons. charlie was panting heavily as the weasleys urged closer to dana and sirius. 

"what happened? what is it you saw, arthur?" sirius calmly asks, examining for any signs of injuries. 

charlie immediately answered with a stuttering voice. 

"death— _death eaters._ "

sirius visibly paled, he instinctively held onto harry's right side, while dana on his left. 

"everybody, stick together! sirius, please lead the kids back to the burrow. bill, charlie, percy and i will take it from here."

"arthur? are you sure?"

"yes, yes! now go!"

sirius gulped down hard, "you heard your father. let's go! harry stay close to us!"

the night was still young, and many things has yet to come. 

> 


	13. Horrible News

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> orlando bloom as charlie weasley

"stay here. dana, lead them back to the burrow!"

sirius was about to leave when dana called his attention, "sirius, where are you going?"

"i'm going to help them-"

dana made sure she never hears what he says and pulled the hem of his shirt towards the other shaking teenagers with the deactivated portkey. 

"dana- wait, let me go! i want to help!"

"you will not, sirius. stop whining and settle down your dramatic arse or i will." 

harry watches his godfather to be carelessly pulled away by a seething woman. harry suddenly shuddered when his eyes caught something in the sky. 

"harry?" he jumped on his feet when he felt hermione's hand on his shoulder, "bloody hell!" ron squeaked back behind them. 

the two struggling adults halted back and gazed up at the sky to see the palpable dark mark across the sky. 

"what the hell is going on?" harry whispered audibly. 

everyone was stiff and silent when they all returned back to the burrow safely. mrs. weasley was wiping her tears as soon as she saw the twins back in one piece. 

"oh thank goodness, thank goodness!" mrs. weasley, who had evidently been waiting for them in the front yard, came running toward them, still wearing her bedroom slippers, her face pale and strained, a rolled-up copy of the daily prophet clutched in her hand. 

"arthur - i've been so worried - so worried -" she flung her arms around mr. weasley's neck, and the daily prophet fell out of her limp hand onto the ground. looking down, harry saw the

headline:   
scenes of terror at the quidditch world cup

complete with a twinkling black-and-white photograph of the dark mark over the treetops. 

"you're all right," mrs. weasley muttered distractedly, releasing mr. weasley and staring around at them all with red eyes, "you're alive. ... oh boys ..." and to everybody's surprise, she seized fred and george and pulled them both into such a tight hug that their heads banged together. 

"ouch! mum - you're strangling us -" "i shouted at you before you left!" mrs. weasley said, starting to sob. "it's all i've been thinking about! what if you-know-who had got you, and the last thing i ever said to you was that you didn't get enough o.w.l.s? oh fred ... george ..."

everything was all settled but arthur was the first one to leave the burrow as soon as they noticed his name was mentioned by the daily prophet and he says he needs to go to the office together with percy who insisted to come. 

that leaves bill, charlie, dana, the trio, and sirius by the kitchen table. 

"this is horrible, i think the death eaters are too keen to kill muggleborns again." charlie slumped back to his chair with an evident frown on his face. 

dana agreed and followed by, "it's what they do. to eliminate the non-purebloods. they are horrible."

"i think they're celebrating," bill yawned as he closed his eyes for a second, "celebrating for what?" ron can't help but blurt out. 

"i don't know, but for sure they are expecting something big. given the fact that they are enjoying the killing spree."

bill replied and stood up, "i better get back to bed. you three should too,"

that leaves charlie and the rest of them. sirius was awfully quiet, but the four of them can notice the silent communication between him and harry. 

charlie smiled despite the exhaustion, "i better go too. i need to return to romania as soon as i can. owl me anytime, dana if you want to talk." dana nodded and gave him an encouraging smile. 

that leaves the five of them. 

"is your scar still hurting?"

sirius asks lowly, whilst harry's two friends was attentive from listening. 

"yes, i had a couple of nightmares even when i was at grimmauld place." sirius turn to me and dana gave her an 'i told you so' look. 

"what was it?"

"on saturday morning, i woke up with my scar hurting again." ron's and hermione's reactions were almost exactly as harry had imagined them back in his bedroom on privet drive.

hermione gasped and started making suggestions at once, mentioning a number of reference books, and everybody from albus dumbledore to madam pomfrey, the hogwarts nurse.   
ron simply looked dumbstruck. 

"but - he wasn't there, was he? you-know-who? i mean - last time your scar kept hurting, he was at hogwarts, wasn't he?" 

"i'm sure he wasn't on privet drive," said harry. "but i was dreaming about him ... him and someone- a woman- you know, i don't know who she is. i can't remember all of it now, but they were plotting to kill ... someone."

he had teetered for a moment on the verge of saying "me," but couldn't bring himself to make hermione look any more horrified than she already did.

"it was only a dream," said ron bracingly. "just a nightmare." "yeah, but was it, though?" said harry, turning to look out of the window at the brightening sky. 

"it's weird, isn't it? ... my scar hurts, and three days later the death eaters are on the march, and voldemort's sign's up in the sky again."

dana pondered for a moment, "harry, what was the woman look like?" she questioned before crossing her arms against her chest. 

this seemed to pick the interest of his friends, "she has a blonde hair and a blue eyes. as similar as yours actually. but i don't think that was you because she was more of a grown woman. like sirius."

dana didn't know what to say and only one person she could think of as of the moment. her mother, vienna.   
  


◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈  
  


neither mr. weasley nor percy was at home much over the following week. both left the house each morning before the rest of the family got up, and returned well after dinner every night. 

"it's been an absolute uproar," percy told them importantly the sunday evening before they were due to return to hogwarts. 

"i've been putting out fires all week. people keep sending howlers, and of course, if you don't open a howler straight away, it explodes. 

scorch marks all over my desk and my best quill reduced to cinders." "why are they all sending howlers?" asked ginny, who was mending her copy of one thousand magical herbs and fungi with spellotape on the rug in front of the living room fire.

"complaining about security at the world cup," said percy. 

"they want compensation for their ruined property. mundungus fletcher's put in a claim for a twelve-bedroomed tent with en-suite jacuzzi, but i've got his number. i know for a fact he was sleeping under a cloak propped on sticks." 

mrs. weasley glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner. harry liked this clock. it was completely useless if you wanted to know the time, but otherwise very informative. it had nine golden hands, and each of them was engraved with one of the weasley family's names. there were no numerals around the face, but descriptions of where each family member might be. 

"home," "school," and "work" were there, but there was also "traveling," "lost," "hospital," "prison," and, in the position where the number twelve would be on a normal clock, "mortal peril." eight of the hands were currently pointing to the "home" position, but mr. weasley's, which was the

longest, was still pointing to "work." mrs. weasley sighed. 

"your father hasn't had to go into the office on weekends since the days of you-know-who," she said. 

"they're working him far too hard. his dinner's going to be ruined if he doesn't come home soon." "well, father feels he's got to make up for his mistake at the match, doesn't he?" said percy. 

"if truth be told, he was a tad unwise to make a public statement without clearing it with his head of department first -" "don't you dare blame your father for what that wretched skeeter woman wrote!" said mrs. weasley, flaring up at once. 

"if dad hadn't said anything, old rita would just have said it was disgraceful that nobody from the ministry had commented," said bill, who was playing chess with ron. 

"rita skeeter never makes anyone look good. remember, she interviewed all the gringotts' charm breakers once, and called me 'a long-haired pillock'?" "well, it is a bit long, dear," said mrs. weasley gently. 

"if you'd just let me -" "no, mum." rain lashed against the living room window.

hermione was immersed in the standard book of spells, grade 4, copies of which mrs. weasley had bought for her, harry, and ron in diagon alley.   
charlie was darning a fireproof balaclava. harry was polishing his firebolt, the broomstick servicing kit hermione had given him for his thirteenth birthday open at his feet. fred and george were sitting in a far corner, quills out, talking in whispers, their heads bent over a piece of parchment. 

"what are you two up to?" said mrs. weasley sharply, her eyes on the twins.   
"homework," said fred vaguely. 

"don't be ridiculous, you're still on holiday," said mrs.   
weasley. 

"yeah, we've left it a bit late," said george. 

"you're not by any chance writing out a new order form, are you?" said mrs. weasley shrewdly. 

"you wouldn't be thinking of restarting weasleys' wizard wheezes, by any chance?" "now, mum," said fred, looking up at her, a pained look on his face. 

"if the hogwarts express crashed tomorrow, and george and i died, how would you feel to know that the last thing we ever heard from you was an unfounded accusation?" 

everyone laughed, even mrs. weasley.

"oh your father's coming!" she said suddenly, looking up at the clock again.   
mr. weasley's hand had suddenly spun from "work" to "traveling"; a second later it had shuddered to a halt on "home" with the others, and they heard him calling from the kitchen. 

"coming, arthur!" called mrs. weasley, hurrying out of the room.

september came, the trio and the rest of the weasley kids bid their farewell, while sirius and dana was left alone by the burrow. 

the other three older weasleys are now busy. the two came back to their respective countries for their job while percy was busy at the ministry to assist crouch who will be a part of the judges for the upcoming triwizard tournament. next month will be their arrival as delegates for beauxbatons. 

"i hope the ministry doesn't go too blind, this time. with all the chaos happening around the corner, it's impossible to deny what's coming. tea, dear?"

mrs. weasley was frustrated, same goes for dana.

"and with the triwizard! this is horrendous. can't they just cancel the whole thing?" 

"i don't think so, mrs. weasley. if they would cancel the tournament, fudge will go crazy. the wizarding world looks up to their leader and he doesn't like to embarrass himself."

mrs. weasley fume at this, "well he's already embarrassing as it is! i don't even know what's gotten into the both of him and dumbledore."

"that's exactly what i'm thinking."

"dana, dear, you have to be careful. if you are entering the tournament you have to be careful."

"of course, mrs. weasley. but i don't think i have the strength to. i don't trust it."

"oh sirius, there you are! we were just talking about the triwizard tournament."

dana looked behind her cup of tea and gave sirius a faint smile. 

"what do you have there molly?"

"oh i did some pancakes,"

"i'm famished," he groaned while stretching his arms wide, "dumbledore assigned me by the way,"

"that's good!" molly exclaimed cheerfully, "what did he assigned you this time?"

"he told me he would gladly accept me as an astronomy teacher."

dana choked on her own tea, making sirius bolted by his seat, dana was coughing relentlessly. 

"are you alright, dana? be careful!" mrs. weasley said. 

dana glared at sirius, "you surprised me!" she reasoned, wiping her lips using the back of her palm. 

"is it for real?" she gushed, sirius shook his head in amusement. 

"yes,"

"wait- how about you? i mean, did even dumbledore thought through of this when he assigned you as an astronomy teacher? don't get me wrong, but the public still had a bad impression on you. and with the death eaters roaming around?"

"then i'll have no choice but to kick their arse."

dana suppressed a laugh, "okay, but go off, bestie." she grinned. 

> 


	14. Delegates

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holy shit, we reached 1K on wattpad!   
> thank you so much!

  
  
  
  


"will you be okay, then?"

sirius was as much as restless as dana. technically, it was sirius who's minding her business for her. 

"sirius-"

"remember what i said the last time. if men corners you, disapparate immediately or kick their shin!"

"sirius-"

"if they hold you, use your wand and tie them all,"

"hey sirius-"

"and then-"

"goddamnit, sirius calm your dramatic arse down!" dana was cackling from her seat as she watches sirius stopped from his pacing. 

she held onto her chair while she watch him with astonishment, "don't you think you're a bit dramatic. have you forgotten you're a teacher now?"

something dawned in his face, "oh-right."

"OH!" dana face palm in second hand embarrassment. 

"how are we going to hogwarts again?" sirius asks dumbly. 

"i don't know, confund the hogwarts express driver? you tell me," dana smirked while recalling the memory. 

"okay, very funny. but we don't need to do that anymore. because i'm a free man."

he boasted as he subtly puff out his chest. dana chortled holding her stomach. 

"okay, frodo, come on let's pack up our things and we'll go to king's cross station."

"frodo?"

"a random pet name,"

"how dare you, i'm deeply offended!"

"i'm kidding! it's a muggle thing. from a very good movie. we should watch it some time."

sirius dramatically gasped, putting a hand on his chest, acting as if he was hurt. 

"on the second thought, i'd like to call you waffles."

"very helpful," sirius dead panned with a glare, "what? oh wait, your dog form is really lovable and fluffly... so- yeah, like a waffles and i'd snuggle it to sleep anytime."

"snuffles!" dana clicked her hands with a triumph look, and stood by the table. 

"i will call you snuffles," she said with finality while jumping down the table and skipping upstairs the burrow. 

but dana didn't saw how sirius grinned to himself when she turn ahead of the stairs.   
  
  
  


◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈  
  
  
  


"i couldn't imagine coming back to hogwarts again. let alone teach there. must've felt good, don't you think?"

dana hummed in response while plopping down in an empty compartment. she gazed outside as she watched the trees and mountains they passed on the way to countryside. 

dana suddenly remembers all the letter Dumbledore has sent her for the past weeks before the start of another classes at hogwarts. 

those were letters of relentless persuasions and their plan to seek aurelia from the muggle world. sirius and remus would absolutely loathe her for keeping secrets. 

especially remus. she felt horrible and at the same time guilty for accepting dumbledore's offer.

"sirius? what do you think will happen when we get back to hogwarts?" she said out of the blue, her eyes was still transfixed outside the window. 

"aside from the tournament? i don't really expect anything."

"i- i have to tell you something."

those sentence made sirius stopped from whatever he's doing. he dropped the lace of his black shoes and gave dana a side glance. 

"why?"

"i really have a bad feeling about the tournament, sirius."

she wasn't lying, she's been dreading coming back from hogwarts but there's something she's been feeling. like there's a call of awakening inside that tells her terrible things will happen. one of these days, she's been telling him all the things she felt even the smallest guesses. 

and sirius felt comfortable because she wasn't as uptight as before. she was slowly coping up with his company. their relationship was pure, wherein none of them forces each other to open up. they had a mutual understanding. and sirius thinks it's a good thing. 

after twelve years spending in azkaban, sirius found someone to ease his loneliness from the death of his two bestfriends. and that's a progress, right?   
  
  
  
  


◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈  
  
  
  
  


"aha! unless i am very much mistaken, the delegation from beauxbatons approaches!" "where?" said many students eagerly, all looking in different directions.   
"there!" yelled a sixth year, pointing over the forest. 

something large, much larger than a broomstick - or, indeed, a hundred broomsticks - was hurtling across the deep blue sky toward the castle, growing larger all the time. 

"it's a dragon!" shrieked one of the first years, losing her head completely. 

"don't be stupid ... it's a flying house!" said dennis creevey. dennis's guess was closer. ... as the gigantic black shape skimmed over the treetops of the forbidden forest and the lights shining from the castle windows hit it, they saw a gigantic, powder-blue, horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house, soaring toward them, pulled through the air by a dozen winged horses, all palominos, and each the size of an elephant. 

the front three rows of students drew backward as the carriage hurtled ever lower, coming in to land at a tremendous speed - then, with an almighty crash that made neville jump backward onto a slytherin fifth year's foot, the horses' hooves, larger than dinner plates, hit the ground. a second later, the carriage landed too, bouncing upon its vast wheels, while the golden horses tossed their enormous heads and rolled large, fiery red eyes. 

harry just had time to see that the door of the carriage bore a coat of arms (two crossed, golden wands, each emitting three stars) before it opened. 

a boy in pale blue robes jumped down from the carriage, bent forward, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor, and unfolded a set of golden steps. he sprang back respectfully. 

then harry saw a shining, high-heeled black shoe emerging from the inside of the carriage - a shoe the size of a child's sled - followed, almost immediately, by the largest woman he had ever seen in his life. the size of the carriage, and of the horses, was immediately explained. a few people gasped. 

harry had only ever seen one person as large as this woman in his life, and that was hagrid; he doubted whether there was an inch difference in their heights. 

yet somehow - maybe simply because he was used to hagrid - this woman (now at the foot of the steps,and looking around at the waiting, wide-eyed crowd) seemed even more unnaturally large. as she stepped into the light flooding from the entrance hall, she was revealed to have a handsome, olive-skinned face; 

large, black, liquid-looking eyes; and a rather beaky nose. her hair was drawn back in a shining knob at the base of her neck. she was dressed from head to foot in black satin, and many magnificent opals gleamed at her throat and on her thick fingers. 

dumbledore started to clap; the students, following his lead, broke into applause too, many of them standing on tiptoe, the better to look at this woman. 

her face relaxed into a gracious smile and she walked forward toward dumbledore, extending a glittering hand. dumbledore, though tall himself, had barely to bend to kiss it. 

"my dear madame maxime," he said. "welcome to hogwarts." 

"dumbly-dorr," said madame maxime in a deep voice.   
"i 'ope i find you well?" "in excellent form, i thank you," said dumbledore. 

"my pupils," said madame maxime, waving one of her enormous hands carelessly behind her. 

harry, whose attention had been focused completely upon madame maxime, now noticed that about a dozen boys and girls, all, by the look of them, in their late teens, had emerged from the carriage and were now standing behind madame maxime. 

they were shivering, which was unsurprising, given that their robes seemed to be made of fine silk, and none of them were wearing cloaks. a few had wrapped scarves and shawls around their heads. from what harry

could see of them (they were standing in madame maxime's enormous shadow), they were staring up at hogwarts with apprehensive looks on their faces.   
" 'as karkaroff arrived yet?" madame maxime asked. 

ron and harry were looking for someone, but she was not there. dana wasn't there. but nonetheless, their attention swayed as soon as the hogwarts students began anticipating once more for the next delegates. 

"he should be here any moment," said dumbledore. 

"would you like to wait here and greet him or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a trifle?" 

"warm up, i think," said madame maxime. 

"but ze 'orses -" 

"our care of magical creatures teacher will be delighted to take care of them," said dumbledore, "the moment he has returned from dealing with a slight situation that has arisen with some of his other - er - charges." 

"skrewts," ron muttered to harry, grinning. 

"my steeds require - er - forceful 'andling," said madame maxime, looking as though she doubted whether any care of magical creatures teacher at hogwarts could be up to the job. 

"zey are very strong.   
..." "i assure you that hagrid will be well up to the job," said dumbledore, smiling. 

"very well," said madame maxime, bowing slightly. 

"will you please inform zis 'agrid zat ze 'orses drink only single-malt whiskey?" 

"it will be attended to," said dumbledore, also bowing. 

"come," said madame maxime imperiously to her students, and the hogwarts crowd parted to allow her and her students to pass up the stone steps.  
  
  
  


"attention everyone, before you may begin the feast, i'd like to introduce two people, as you may know will play an important role in this school and as well as a very special guests from beauxbatons."

the silence was deafening, as everyone waited for dumbledore to drop the bombshell. 

"may i present you our new staff, a professor for astronomy. mr. sirius black."

harry almost jumped by the long table of gryffindor along with ron and hermione as they clapped pleasingly, followed by gasps of shock and disbelief as sirius black enters the enlarged door of the great hall. 

the gryffindors unwillingly clapped alongside harry who surprisingly had no complaints. 

the weasley twins whistled loudly enough for the guests and other houses to follow gryffindor's lead. sirius confidently strut by the centre, with an unreadable expression as he shakes hands with dumbledore. 

_so this was sirius's surprise?_

"as you all know, the ministry made a proper trial for mr. black and prove his innocence to the winzengamot. he was wrongly convicted with murder. but rest assured, mr. black was a free man and the rightful murderer was sent to azkaban. _refer to daily prophet's front page last month. the details of the trial was there and recorded by a trusted journalist of the minister himself._ "

there was a sense of relief that's been washed over by the hall. 

"and last but certainly not the least, she was the daughter of the most renowned auror from europe who works in the french ministry and recorded as one of the most largest heritage of pure blooded veela's. she studied approximately ten years in beauxbatons to pursue a career of healing and currently an aspiring potion and spell maker. may i present, miss dana knight."

dana, who just entered the hall who wore her usual uniform for beauxbatons slowly stepped inside the hall with a pounding heart. as she stepped inside, she can feel all eyes were directed towards her. 

her heart leaped in relief when she heard her fellow beauxbatons schoolmates cheered. but the loudest was fleur and gabrielle. 

the trio was grinning from ear to ear as well as the weasleys as they watched her perform a wandless magic and conjured a magic she made herself. 

the spiraling water encased her body like a cocoon, trapping her inside the translucent element. she closed her eyes for a brief moment before her hands entwined with each other, breaking the water into a thousands of small circles that glided across the four tables and sprang into assorted colors, transforming into a beautiful floating symbols of their houses. 

green and serpent for slytherin.   
blue and eagle for ravenclaw.  
red and lion for gryffindor.   
yellow and badger for hufflepuff. 

the figures exploded like a fireworks above the ceiling, conjuring thousands of rare middlemist red flower. 

she smiled to herself with a satisfied smile and gave a courteous bow. the hall cheered for her name.

"the tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," said dumbledore. "i now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!" he sat down, and harry saw karkaroff lean forward at once and engage him in conversation.   
the plates in front of them filled with food as usual. 

the house-elves in the kitchen seemed to have pulled out all the stops; there was a greater variety of dishes in front of them than harry had ever seen, including several that were definitely foreign. 

"what's that?" said ron, pointing at a large dish of some sort of shellfish stew that stood beside a large steak-and-kidney pudding. 

"bouillabaisse," said hermione. 

"bless you," said ron. "it's french," said hermione, "i had it on holiday summer before last. it's very nice." 

"i'll take your word for it," said ron, helping himself to black pudding. 

the great hall seemed somehow much more crowded than usual, even though there were barely twenty additional students there; perhaps it was because their differently colored uniforms stood out so clearly against the black of the hogwarts' robes.

now that they had removed their furs, the durmstrang students were revealed to be wearing robes of a deep bloodred. 

hagrid sidled into the hall through a door behind the staff table twenty minutes after the start of the feast. 

he slid into his seat at the end and waved at harry, ron, and hermione with a very heavily bandaged hand. 

"skrewts doing all right, hagrid?" harry called.   
"thrivin'," hagrid called back happily. 

"yeah, i'll just bet they are," said ron quietly. "looks like they've finally found a food they like, doesn't it? hagrid's fingers." 

at that moment, a voice said, "excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?" 

it was the girl from beauxbatons who had laughed during dumbledore's speech. she had finally removed her muffler. a long sheet of silvery-blonde hair fell almost to her waist. she had large, deep blue eyes, and very white, even teeth.ron went purple. 

he stared up at her, opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out except a faint gurgling noise. 

"yeah, have it," said harry, pushing the dish toward the girl. 

"you 'ave finished wiz it?" "yeah," ron said breathlessly. "yeah, it was excellent." 

the girl picked up the dish and carried it carefully off to the ravenclaw table. ron was still goggling at the girl as though he had never seen one before. harry started to laugh. the sound seemed to jog ron back to his senses. 

"she's a veela!" he said hoarsely to harry. 

"of course she isn't!" said hermione tartly. 

"i don't see anyone else gaping at her like an idiot!" but she wasn't entirely right about that. as the girl crossed the hall, many boys' heads turned, and some of them seemed to have become temporarily speechless, just like ron. 

"i'm telling you, that's not a normal girl!" said ron, leaning sideways so he could keep a clear view of her. 

"they don't make them like that at hogwarts!"

"they make them okay at hogwarts," said harry without thinking. cho happened to be sitting only a few places away from the girl with the silvery hair. 

"when you've both put your eyes back in," said hermione briskly, "you'll be able to see who's just arrived."

she was pointing up at the staff table. the two remaining empty seats had just been filled. ludo bagman was now sitting on professor karkaroff's other side, while mr. crouch, percy's boss, was next to madame maxime. 

"what are they doing here?" said harry in surprise. 

"they organized the triwizard tournament, didn't they?" said hermione. 

"i suppose they wanted to be here to see it start." when the second course arrived they noticed a number of unfamiliar desserts too.

ron examined an odd sort of pale blancmange closely, then moved it carefully a few inches to his right, so that it would be clearly visible from the ravenclaw table. the girl who looked like a veela appeared to have eaten enough, however, and did not come over to get it.

once the golden plates had been wiped clean, dumbledore stood up again. a pleasant sort of tension seemed to fill the hall now. harry felt a slight thrill of excitement, wondering what was coming.   
several seats down from them, fred and george were leaning forward, staring at dumbledore with great concentration. 

"the moment has come," said dumbledore, smiling around at the sea of upturned faces.

"the triwizard tournament is about to start. i would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket -" "the what?" harry muttered. ron shrugged. 

"- just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. but first, let me introduce, for pthose who do not know them, mr. bartemius crouch, head of the department of international magical cooperation" - there was a smattering of polite applause - "and mr. ludo bagman, head of the department of magical games and sports." 

there was a much louder round of applause for bagman than for crouch, perhaps because of his fame as a beater, or simply because he looked so much more likable. he acknowledged it with a jovial wave of his hand. bartemius crouch did not smile or wave when his name was announced. remembering him in his neat suit at the quidditch world cup, harry thought he looked strange in wizard's robes. 

his toothbrush mustache and severe parting looked very odd next to dumbledore's long white hair and beard. 

"mr. bagman and mr. crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the triwizard tournament," dumbledore continued, "and they will be joining myself, professor karkaroff, and madame maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts." at the mention of the word "champions," the attentiveness of the listening students seemed to sharpen. perhaps dumbledore had noticed their sudden stillness, for he smiled as he said, "the casket, then, if you please, mr. filch."

filch, who had been lurking unnoticed in a far corner of the hall, now approached dumbledore carrying a great wooden chest encrusted with jewels. it looked extremely old. a murmur of excited interest rose from the watching students; dennis creevey actually stood on his chair to see it properly, but, being so tiny, his head hardly rose above anyone else's."

"the instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by mr. crouch and mr. bagman," 

said dumbledore as filch placed the chest carefully on the table before him, "and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. there will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways ... their magical prowess - their daring - their powers of deduction - and, of course, their ability to cope with danger." 

at this last word, the hall was filled with a silence so absolute that nobody seemed to be breathing. 

"as you know, three champions compete in the tournament," dumbledore went on calmly, "one from each of the participating schools. they will be marked on how well they perform each of the tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the triwizard cup. the champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the goblet of fire." 

dumbledore now took out his wand and tapped three times upon the top of the casket. the lid creaked slowly open.

dumbledore reached inside it and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. it would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue-white flames. 

dumbledore closed the casket and placed the goblet carefully on top of it, where it would be clearly visible to everyone in the hall. 

"anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," said dumbledore. 

"aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. tomorrownight, halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. the goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete."

"to ensure that no underage student yields to temptation," said dumbledore, "i will be drawing an age line around the goblet of fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line. 

"finally, i wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. once a champion has been selected by the goblet of fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end. the placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. 

there can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet. now, i think it is time for bed. good night to you all." 

"an age line!" fred weasley said, his eyes glinting, as they all made their way across the hall to the doors into the entrance hall. "well, that should be fooled by an aging potion, shouldn't it? and once your name's in that goblet, you're laughing - it can't tell whether you're seventeen or not!" 

"but i don't think anyone under seventeen will stand a chance," said hermione, "we just haven't learned enough ..." 

"speak for yourself," said george shortly.

"you'll try and get in, won't you, harry?"  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


  
_  
_

  
  



	15. Citizenship

  
  


harry was deeply driven by excitement as soon as they all began filling out the entrance of the hall. he waited patiently for the two persons he wanted to talk before he would go to bed. sirius and dana on the other hand were both talking side by side with a comfortable smile etched on their lips, and behind them was the headmistress and the group of beauxbatons students. 

ron and hermione left shortly after he decided to go and talk to sirius. as soon as they both reached the entrance, harry greeted them with a warm smile. 

"oh, look who it is, professor black's favorite student."

harry subtly smiled at her teasing comment, sirius grinned playfully as he drapes down his arm over his shoulder. 

"i suppose you wanted some answers?" sirius gazed over dana, as if pondering for a second if he would ask for her permission. 

"you can go, i'll join fleur." she smiled softly, which sirius returned. dana watched both men walking away, while fleur was behind with a wide smile. 

"zat man is 'ot," fleur giggled, with a twinkle in her eyes. dana rolls her eyes playfully. 

"not more than you, of course." she winked, earning a gasp from fleur. 

"zo you're gay for me now?"

"who wouldn't? i can marry you if you want." she smirked clearly thrilled. 

fleur slightly flushed, surprised by her answer. they both linked arms followed by the rest of the beauxbatons students. while filch led the way from the carriage of beauxbatons near the forbidden forest. 

as the next day was saturday, most students would normally have breakfasted late. harry, ron, and hermione, however, were not alone in rising much earlier than they usually did on weekends.

when they went down into the entrance hall, they saw about twenty people milling around it, some of them eating toast, all examining the goblet of fire. it had been placed in the center of the hall on the stool that normally bore the sorting hat. a thin golden line had been traced on the floor, forming a circle ten feet around it in every direction. 

“anyone put their name in yet?” ron asked a third-year girl eagerly. 

“all the durmstrang lot,” she replied. “but i haven’t seen anyone from hogwarts yet.” 

“bet some of them put it in last night after we’d all gone to bed,” said harry. 

“i would’ve if it had been me … wouldn’t have wanted everyone watching. what if the goblet just gobbed you right back out again?” someone laughed behind harry. turning, he saw fred, george, and lee jordan hurrying down the staircase, all three of them looking extremely excited. 

“done it,” fred said in a triumphant whisper to harry, ron, and hermione. “just taken it.”

"what?” said ron. 

“the aging potion, dung brains,” said fred.

“one drop each,” said george, rubbing his hands together with glee. 

“we only need to be a few months older.”

“we’re going to split the thousand galleons between the three of us if one of us wins,” said lee, grinning broadly. 

“i’m not sure this is going to work, you know,” said hermione warningly 

“i’m sure dumbledore will have thought of this.” fred, george, and lee ignored her. 

“ready?” fred said to the other two, quivering with excitement. “c’mon, then — i’ll go first —” 

harry watched, fascinated, as fred pulled a slip of parchment out of his pocket bearing the words fred weasley — hogwarts. fred walked right up to the edge of the line and stood there, rocking on his toes like a diver preparing for a fifty-foot drop. 

then, with the eyes of every person in the entrance hall upon him, he took a great breath and stepped over the line. 

for a split second harry thought it had worked — george certainly thought so, for he let out a yell of triumph and leapt after fred — but next moment, there was a loud sizzling sound, and both twins were hurled out of the golden circle as though they had been thrown by an invisible shot-putter. 

they landed painfully, ten feet away on the cold stone floor, and to add insult to injury, there was a loud popping noise, and both of them sprouted identical long white beards.   
the entrance hall rang with laughter. 

even fred and george joined in, once they had gotten to their feet and taken a good look at each other’s beards.

“i did warn you,” said a deep, amused voice, and everyone turned to see professor dumbledore coming out of the great hall. 

he surveyed fred and george, his eyes twinkling. 

“i suggest you both go up to madam pomfrey. she is already tending to miss fawcett, of ravenclaw, and mr. summers, of hufflepuff, both of whom decided to age themselves up a little too. though i must say, neither of their beards is anything like as fine as yours.” 

fred and george set off for the hospital wing, accompanied by lee, who was howling with laughter, and harry, ron, and hermione, also chortling, went in to breakfast. 

the decorations in the great hall had changed this morning. as it was halloween, a cloud of live bats was fluttering around the enchanted ceiling, while hundreds of carved pumpkins leered from every corner. 

harry led the way over to dean and seamus, who were discussing those hogwarts students of seventeen or over who might be entering. 

“there’s a rumor going around that warrington got up early and put his name in,” dean told harry. 

“that big bloke from slytherin who looks like a sloth.” harry, who had played quidditch against warrington, shook his head in disgust. 

“we can’t have a slytherin champion!” 

“and all the hufflepuffs are talking about diggory,” said seamus contemptuously. 

“but i wouldn’t have thought he’d have wanted to risk his good looks.” 

"that doesn't sound nice," the soft tone of dana echoed inside the hall, beside her was fleur walking confidently beside her. all heads turn to both women who just entered. 

ron unconsciously fixed his hair, as soon as she saw the beautiful lady beside their friend. hermione frowned slightly, while harry looks extremely embarrassed. 

"dana! what are you doing here?"

dana smiled, the other hogwarts students watch her join the trio as they eagerly looked at her. 

"i'm just joining my petite soeur, she's going to join the tournament. have you talked to sirius yet?"

harry nodded vigorously, earning whispers from the crowd. there was a rumored news about harry being a god son to sirius but it was never publicized what was the real relationship between the two. 

yet, somehow, most people are fascinated by the story how did he became one. after his trials, more and more people started accepting his presence, but some still can't help but spat nor talk ill of him. which makes harry angry. 

but he can't blame them. honestly, who would instantly believe someone who's renown as the mass murderer of twelve muggles and a big supporter of the you-know-who? 

"oh by the way, i think sirius today had a schedule for astronomy on tuesday, i hope you had a lesson with him." 

dana informed, "crap, the time tables are at the dormitory!" harry grumbled, while dana shook her head chuckling lightly earning audible sounds of swoons from the young lads around the corner. 

"well, we better get going, take care harry."

harry nodded, as she stood up, Fleur followed in suit as she hastily put the slip into the goblet. 

they both left the great hall, without dana hearing hermione's doubtful voice. 

"harry, i don't trust them. you better watch out, dana."

harry looked at hermione incredulously, "what for?"

"she's a veela!" 

"so?—" this time, both ron and harry said at the same time, annoyed rather by the sudden sprout of nonsense coming out of hermione's mouth. 

maybe it was because the way ron looked at fleur or the way ron was shy around dana. 

"so, veela's have charms to lure men, and sirius might be mistaken—"

"oh come off it!" said harry a little louder than he intended, clearly upset, "are you really trying to tell me that she is seducing sirius that's why they are both enjoying each other's company? or is it just this one of your irrational thoughts?"

"no—but—"

"but you're jealous," he finished, hermione opened her mouth, but nothing comes out. and ron was amused by hermione's hopeless state. 

"i-i'm not jealous," she finally said, a bit forceful and trying to sound offended. 

"then stop being defensive around her. she helped us from sirius and now you're acting all reluctant around her. do you have anything against veela's hermione? tell me because i won't judge."

the heavy sarcasm lacing around harry's voice made hermione blushed furiously and suddenly diverted the topic when she heard distant voices. 

“listen!” said hermione suddenly.

people were cheering out in the entrance hall. they all swiveled around in their seats and saw angelina johnson coming into the hall, grinning in an embarrassed sort of way.

a tall black girl who played chaser on the gryffindor quidditch team, angelina came over to them, sat down, and said, “well, i’ve done it! just put my name in!” 

“you’re kidding!” said ron, looking impressed. 

“are you seventeen, then?” asked harry. 

“ ’course she is, can’t see a beard, can you?” said ron. 

“i had my birthday last week,” said angelina. 

“well, i’m glad someone from gryffindor’s entering,” said hermione. “i really hope you get it, angelina!” 

“thanks, hermione,” said angelina, smiling at her. 

“yeah, better you than pretty-boy diggory,” said seamus, causing several hufflepuffs passing their table to scowl heavily at him. 

“what’re we going to do today, then?” ron asked harry and hermione when they had finished breakfast and were leaving the great hall. 

“we haven’t been down to visit hagrid yet,” said harry. 

“okay,” said ron, “just as long as he doesn’t ask us to donate a few fingers to the skrewts.” 

a look of great excitement suddenly dawned on hermione’s face.

hermione tried to shook her memories away from her little spat with harry. but clearly, harry hasn't got over it. 

on the other hand, sirius was inside the office of dumebledore discussing something when mcgonagall bursted inside with a rolls of parchment, followed by snape and of course the new celebrity, dana. 

"minnie! nice to see you again!" sirius enthusiastically said who can't help but grin. minerva scowled. 

"i'm warning you, black. you are not a student anymore. if i hear any single gossips around the halls and heard you tolerating pranks around the corridor, i will give you detention."

she said sternly as snape, dana and dumbledore watched from a far with a hidden amusement. 

"minnie, give it a rest. i'm a grown up man now, don't you trust me?"

mcgonagall narrowed her eyes, silently assessing him to see any signs of lies that she hoped would resurface. but sirius was good at hiding it. 

sirius surreptitiously winked at dana behind minerva who scoffed playfully. 

"what brings you here, minerva?" dumbledore cleared his throat to catch the deputy headmistress's attention. 

"these are the information you asked for. miss knight helped collect those from our judge, madam maxime."

"what's that?" sirius said attentively, "oh these are the papers of dana."

sirius turned to glance at the young lady who had a red tint on her cheeks, "for what?" 

"oh— it's the... it's—"

"well, since she is beginning her training at st. mungo's next summer, her grandmother has requested to register her grand daughter in the british ministry to register her and..."

"well—?" dumbledore paused, looking at dana who had a nervous smile. 

sirius was eager to know more, seeing the glint in his eyes. 

"her parents had agreed to finally let her go, and settle down in england and apply for a citizenship."

sirius stood up, surprised, "no way!" he exclaimed and gave dana look of disbelief. 

"well, dad was a bit hard to please and especially mum but we did settled everything before i left—"

sirius laughed gleefully, which resulted himself to carry dana mid-air as they both hugged each other. dana squealed in delight. 

"the application is almost done, she just needs to find a place next summer."

sirius and dana wasn't listening as both of them were too busy congratulating each other. 

the three people around them had three different reactions. as usual, snape still looked bitter.

minerva was slightly giggling as she reminded the both of them with her and his husband. while dumbledore was smiling gently. it's a pity, that a beautiful moment wouldn't last as much as they intended to. 

"you are still welcome at grimmauld place, you know. you know i hate that place especially without company."

albus dumbledore beamed, while minerva deeply scowled, and it only means one thing. 

albus bemused and stared at minerva who glared at him. she silently conjured her wand inside the pocket of her long dress and handed over the ten galleons mid-air. 

they were betting on the two of them! and they are oblivious about it. snape saw this and instantly found himself an amusement. maybe he can use it as a blackmail in the future arguments with black (and he is certain that they will be), because no matter what age they were he is sure that they can't help it. 

the three of them left, except for dana who stays behind. before the door closes, sirius gave her a comforting smile while she returned it with the same level of enthusiasm. she felt so giddy. 

she expected nothing because she still have plans ahead of her and she would daresay she will have a hard time coping up with her new life in england.

"now, back again, with our discussion. dana, what do you say we visit an old friend?"

the halloween feast seemed to take much longer than usual. perhaps because it was their second feast in two days, harry didn’t seem to fancy the extravagantly prepared food as much as he would have normally.

harry had notice the obvious excitement of his god father while he was at the dinner. and he would often see him glancing at dana who would casually return the smile to sirius. 

he didn't know if it was him, or there was something more than his stares and he couldn't contemplate what is it. 

like everyone else in the hall, judging by the constantly craning necks, the impatient expressions on every face, the fidgeting, and the standing up to see whether dumbledore had finished eating yet, harry simply wanted the plates to clear, and to hear who had been selected as champions. 

at long last, the golden plates returned to their original spotless state; there was a sharp upswing in the level of noise within the hall, which died away almost instantly as dumbledore got to his feet. on either side of him, professor karkaroff and madame maxime looked as tense and expectant as anyone. 

ludo bagman was beaming and winking at various students. mr. crouch, however, looked quite uninterested, almost bored. 

“well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision,” said dumbledore. 

“i estimate that it requires one more minute. now, when the champions’ names are called, i would ask them please to come up to the top of the hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber” — he indicated the door behind the staff table —

“where they will be receiving their first instructions.” 

he took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness. 

the goblet of fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. everyone watched, waiting. … a few people kept checking their watches. 

… “any second,” lee jordan whispered, two seats away from harry. 

the flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red again. sparks began to fly from it. next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it — the whole room gasped. 

dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm’s length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white. 

“the champion for durmstrang,” he read, in a strong, clear voice, “will be viktor krum.” 

“no surprises there!” yelled ron as a storm of applause and cheering swept the hall.

harry saw viktor krum rise from the slytherin table and slouch up toward dumbledore; he turned right, walked along the staff table, and disappeared through the door into the next chamber.

"bravo, viktor!” boomed karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause. 

“knew you had it in you!” 

the clapping and chatting died down. now everyone’s attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. a second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames. 

“the champion for beauxbatons,” said dumbledore, “is fleur delacour!” 

“it’s her, ron!” harry shouted as the girl who so resembled a veela got gracefully to her feet, shook back her sheet of silvery blonde hair, and swept up between the ravenclaw and hufflepuff tables.

harry took note the exchange of meaning looks between dana and fleur delacour and the way she stood up to kiss fleur on the cheeks with a proud smile. 

she gently ushered her away. 

“oh look, they’re all disappointed,” hermione said over the noise, nodding toward the remainder of the beauxbatons party.

“disappointed” was a bit of an understatement, harry thought. 

two of the girls who had not been selected had dissolved into tears and were sobbing with their heads on their arms. 

when fleur delacour too had vanished into the side chamber, silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so stiff with excitement you could almost taste it. 

the hogwarts champion next … and the goblet of fire turned red once more; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment. 

“the hogwarts champion,” he called, “is cedric diggory!” 

“no!” said ron loudly, but nobody heard him except harry; the uproar from the next table was too great.

every single hufflepuff had jumped to his or her feet, screaming and stamping, as cedric made his way past them, grinning broadly, and headed off toward the chamber behind the teachers’ table. indeed, the applause for cedric went on so long that it was some time before dumbledore could make himself heard again. 

“excellent!” dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. 

“well, we now have our three champions. i am sure i can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from beauxbatons and durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. by cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real —” 

but dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and it was apparent to everybody what had distracted him. 

the fire in the goblet had just turned red again. 

sparks were flying out of it. a long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment. 

automatically, it seemed, dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the parchment. he held it out and stared at the name written upon it. 

there was a long pause, during which dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at dumbledore. 

dana immediately scanned the faces from the staff table and looked at sirius and gave him one of her "i told you so" looks. 

for some reason, her feet began tapping several times with great anxiousness. her fingers began fiddling on its own out of pure nervousness. 

four champions; first time in the history of the wizarding tradition. it can't be. she thought. 

and then dumbledore cleared his throat and read out — “harry potter.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This is my first time in AO3. I've heard so much about this site and I would like to try it myself. I've been a writer for so long and I just started writing fan fiction at the end of the year of 2020. And hopefully this'll work for me. 
> 
> I also have an account at wattpad, if you want to keep up with the story 24/7. You can check The Brightest Star under the same username: @haroldpotty
> 
> I have to warn everybody that this story has a huge age gap. But rest assured, I will not put any non consensual relationship and such. And I do not tolerate pedophilia! 
> 
> Please do leave a comment too, I would love to hear your opinion regarding this story. 
> 
> p.s lower case is intended.


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